This application provides a data stream identification method and apparatus and belongs to the field of Internet technologies. The method includes: obtaining packet transmission attribute information of N consecutive packets in a target data stream; generating feature images of the packet transmission attribute information of the N consecutive packets based on the packet transmission attribute information of the N consecutive packets; and inputting the feature images into a pre-trained image classification model, to obtain a target application identifier corresponding to the target data stream. According to this application, accuracy of identifying an application identifier corresponding to a data stream can be improved.