According to a synchronization method and apparatus provided in this application, a source station sends location information of the source station; and after obtaining a signal propagation delay that is calculated according to the location information of the source station and location information of a to-be-synchronized station, the to-be-synchronized station performs synchronization with the source station according to a synchronization reference time obtained by subtracting the propagation delay from a receiving time of a first network reference signal received from the source station. It can be learned that, in a process in which the to-be-synchronized station performs synchronization with the source station, the signal propagation delay between the to-be-synchronized station and the source station is used to compensate for the receiving time of the first network reference signal. Therefore, the consumed propagation delay can be subtracted from the synchronization reference time, so that synchronization accuracy is improved.