An apparatus and a method for controlling forward link power in a CDMA mobile communication system is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a traffic channel correlator for performing a first correlation operation with respect to a code symbol of a CDMA signal received through a traffic channel, a pilot channel correlator for performing a second correlation operation with respect to a code symbol of the CDMA signal received through a pilot channel, a power control bit extractor for extracting a power control bit from the correlation value from the traffic channel which corresponds to a code symbol with a fixed transmission rate, a power estimator for estimating the average of reception power in response to the power control bit extracted by the power control bit extractor and the correlation value from the pilot channel correlator, a comparator for comparing the average reception power estimated by the power estimator with a predetermined power control reference value and generating a deviation of the average reception power from the predetermined power control reference value, and a power control bit generator for generating the final power control bit according to the deviation generated by the comparator.