A small-cell subscriber management method includes receiving, by a terminal, a closed subscriber group (CSG) identity broadcast by a small cell, determining whether the CSG identity is in a CSG identity list stored by the terminal, sending, by the terminal, an access request to the small cell when the CSG identity is in the CSG identity list, requesting, by the terminal after successfully accessing the small cell, a current CSG subscriber list of the small cell from the small cell, managing, by the terminal after receiving the current CSG subscriber list of the small cell, the current CSG subscriber list of the small cell, where a management includes adding a subscriber to, removing a subscriber from, or changing a subscriber in the current CSG subscriber list. According to the foregoing method, a management terminal is used to manage the CSG subscriber list to implement convenient management of a small cell.