A pose estimation method and apparatus are provided. The method includes determining, as a rotation component, an output value of a motion sensor configured to sense a motion of the pose estimation apparatus, determining a change amount of a translation component based on the rotation component, and the translation component extracted from images photographed by a vision sensor included in the pose estimation apparatus, optimizing the translation component based on the change amount, and outputting the rotation component and the optimized translation components a pose estimation value of the pose estimation apparatus.