Provided are an apparatus and method for deciding a transmission format using a variable frame length and a decoding method using the same. The apparatus for deciding the transmission format using the variable frame length includes: a frame synchronization acquiring unit for acquiring a frame synchronization of a received transmission frame; a correlation analyzing unit for performing a correlation analysis with respect to the transmission frame whose synchronization is acquired, considering frame lengths of respective frame structures; and a transmission frame structure deciding unit for deciding the structure of the received transmission frame using the analyzed correlation. Accordingly, a physical layer signaling code (PLSC) demodulation and decoding performance can be enhanced by determining the structure of the transmitted frame without carrying out a PLSC decoding in such a state that a frequency synchronization is not acquired.