This application provides a transmission indication method and a communication apparatus. The method includes: A terminal device receives a medium access control-control element MAC CE or downlink control information DCI. The terminal device does not receive any downlink transmission in one time window based on indication information in the MAC CE or the DCI. According to the solution provided in this application, discontinuous reception DRX transmission can be dynamically and flexibly configured for the terminal device. This helps reduce a performance loss of the terminal device.