Embodiments of the present invention relate to the communications field, and provide a method and device for sending system information. The method comprises: a terminal receives a broadcast message from a network device, the broadcast message comprises indication information for an system information (SI) and wherein that the indication information is for indicating that whether the SI is being broadcasted or not, in case that the indication information indicating that the SI is not being broadcasted, the terminal sends a system information request to the network device for acquiring the SI.