Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for preventing an accidental touch, applied to the field of terminal technologies. The method includes: obtaining a quaternion of a terminal; determining, based on the quaternion of the terminal, first information and attitude angle information of the terminal; detecting motion information of the terminal; detecting ambient light information of the terminal; determining, based on the first information, the attitude angle information, the motion information, and the ambient light information, that the terminal is in a first mode; and entering, by the terminal, a screen-off state to reduce power consumption. In addition, the terminal can be prevented from being awakened accidentally in always on display and lock screen-on states, thereby effectively preventing an accidental touch.