Provided are a method and a device for determining a carrier for bearing a paging message and sending a paging message. The method for determining a carrier for bearing a paging message can comprise: acquiring, from a paging message sent by a mobility management entity (MME) or information locally stored by a base station, a paging characteristic of a terminal, where the paging characteristic indicates whether the terminal has the capability of supporting a non-anchor carrier for bearing the paging message; and determining a carrier for bearing the paging message corresponding to the terminal according to the paging characteristic.