A method for measuring available bandwidth includes a transmit end that sends a first probe sequence to a receive end, and receives a first available bandwidth measurement result from the receive end, the transmit end determines a second probe sequence based on the first available bandwidth measurement result, where the second probe sequence includes a group of probe packets with increasing sending rates, a range of the sending rates of the second probe sequence is the same as a range of the sending rates of the first probe sequence, the transmit end sends the second probe sequence to the receive end, and receives the second available bandwidth measurement result from the receive end, and the transmit end obtains the available bandwidth based on the second available bandwidth measurement result.