This application provides a random access method, a terminal, and a network device. The random access method includes: determining, by a terminal, whether a resource used for random access conflicts with a resource used for receiving a downlink signal; and if the resource used for the random access conflicts with the resource used for the downlink signal, preferentially using the conflicting random access resource for receiving the downlink signal but not for the random access. This avoids a conflict between receiving of the downlink signal and sending of an uplink random access preamble.