A flow control method and apparatus are provided. The flow control apparatus groups stored multiple pieces of address information into at least two security groups according to attribute information; arranges the at least two security groups, so that a security group at a high level may completely include a security group at a low level and security groups at a same level are completely independent of each other without overlap; receives a policy configuration instruction; configures a specified rule according to the policy configuration instruction, and configures a storage sequence of the specified rule according to the policy configuration instruction, where the specified rule is generated according to the policy configuration instruction; receives a data packet after the at least two rules are configured; and processes the data packet according to the at least two rules and storage sequences of the rules, to implement flow control.