A channel encoding method and apparatus. The method includes: obtaining A to-be-encoded information bits; mapping the A to-be-encoded information bits and L CRC bits to a first bit sequence based on an interleaving sequence, where the L CRC bits are obtained based on the A to-be-encoded information bits and a CRC polynomial, the interleaving sequence is obtained from a prestored interleaving sequence table or is obtained based on a maximum-length interleaving sequence, A+L is less than or equal to Kmax, and Kmax is a length of the maximum-length interleaving sequence; and encoding the first bit sequence. In this way, not only an encoding delay can be reduced, but also decoding has an early stop capability, so that decoding can end in advance, thereby reducing a decoding delay.