A random access method and apparatus are provided. In the method, a configuration information element indicating a quantity of downlink signals per random access occasion and a first indication indicating a first downlink signal are sent by a network device to a terminal, and the terminal determines a correspondence between the first downlink signal and a random access occasion is determined based on the configuration information element, and sends a random access preamble via a random access occasion corresponding to the first downlink signal . In this way, the first random access occasion can be relatively accurately determined, and then a random access resource used for random access can be relatively precisely determined.