A video decoding method includes obtaining a to-be-entropy-decoded syntax element in a current block by parsing a received bitstream, where the to-be-entropy-decoded syntax element includes a syntax element 1 or a syntax element 2 in the current block, obtaining a context model corresponding to the to-be-entropy-decoded syntax element, where both of a context model corresponding to the syntax element 1 and a context model corresponding to the syntax element 2 are determined from the same preset context model set, entropy decoding the to-be-entropy-decoded syntax element based on the context model corresponding to the to-be-entropy-decoded syntax element, and obtaining a reconstructed image of the current block based on the syntax element obtained by entropy decoding.