The present disclosure describes a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidate determining method and device, and relates to the field of wireless communications, so as to avoid PDCCH blocking and improve reliability of control information transmission. The method of the present invention includes: determining an PDCCH resource set p in a subframe k, where the PDCCH resource set p includes NECCE,p,k=q×r enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs), an PDCCH candidate of an PDCCH with an aggregation level being L corresponds to L ECCEs having consecutive reference numerals, and an PDCCH candidate is capable of carrying an PDCCH; and determining the number of PDCCH candidates at the aggregation level L of a carrier corresponding to an index Cellindex and an ECCE corresponding to each PDCCH candidate, where the ECCE corresponding to each PDCCH candidate at the aggregation level L is related to the index Cellindex.