This application relates to an image recognition technology in the field of computer vision of artificial intelligence, and provides an image classification method and apparatus. An example method includes obtaining an input feature map of a to-be-processed image, and then performing feature extraction processing on the input feature map based on a feature extraction kernel of a neural network to obtain an output feature map, where each of a plurality of output sub-feature maps is determined based on the corresponding input sub-feature map and the feature extraction kernel, at least one of the output sub-feature maps is determined based on a target matrix obtained after an absolute value is taken, and a difference between the target matrix and the input sub-feature map corresponding to the target matrix is the feature extraction kernel. The to-be-processed image is classified based on the output feature map to obtain a classification result of the to-be-processed image.