This application provides a paging message transmission method and apparatus, where the method includes: receiving, by a terminal device, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from a network device, where one or more types of first indication information, second indication information, a short message, and scheduling information of a paging message are carried on the PDCCH, the first indication information is used to indicate that the PDCCH carries the short message and/or the scheduling information, and the second indication information is used to indicate whether the scheduling information of the paging message is valid and/or whether the terminal device needs to receive a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); and obtaining, by the terminal device based on the PDCCH, one or more types of the information carried on the PDCCH.