This application provides a gesture recognition method, and relates to the field of man-machine interaction technologies. The method includes: extracting M images from a first video segment in a video stream; performing gesture recognition on the M images by using a deep learning algorithm, to obtain a gesture recognition result corresponding to the first video segment; and performing result combination on gesture recognition results of N consecutive video segments including the first video segment, to obtain a combined gesture recognition result. In the foregoing recognition process, a gesture in the video stream does not need to be segmented or tracked, but phase actions are recognized by using a deep learning algorithm with a relatively fast calculation speed, and then the phase actions are combined, so as to improve a gesture recognition speed, and reduce a gesture recognition delay.