Embodiments of the present invention provide a feedback method for active scanning of a user terminal and an access point, and relate to the field of communications, where a timer is set in the access point, and after the timer reaches preset time, buffered probe response message can be cleared, thereby further reducing an overhead of channel resources. The feedback method includes: receiving a probe request message from a user terminal, where the probe request message includes scanning time preset by the user terminal; generating and buffering a probe response message of the probe request message; setting and starting a timer corresponding to the user terminal according to the received scanning time preset by the user terminal; and clearing the buffered probe response message after determining that the timer reaches the preset scanning time and the probe response message is not sent to the user terminal.