Disclosed in the present invention are a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) indication method, a terminal, and a base station. The method in the present invention comprises: a first terminal obtains transmission data flow quantity indication information of all scheduled terminals in at least one scheduling resource, or obtains resource element (RE) quantity indication information occupied by DMRSs corresponding to transmission flows of all the scheduled terminals in the at least one scheduling resource; and the first terminal determines, according to the obtained indication information, RE positions configured or occupied by the DMRSs corresponding to an interference data flow of the first terminal in the scheduling resources. By means of the present invention, DMRSs in transmission of multiple data flows can be indicated, and the present invention is particularly applicable to an MU-MIMO system of a large-scale antenna array.