Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and apparatus for processing a short message, and a system, and relate to the field of communications technologies, which enable a terminal to receive a short message in time on the premise of not interrupting a current PS service, enhance user experience, reduce resource consumption of a short message service, and optimizes a utilization rate of a network resource. A method for processing a short message provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes: determining, by a network element in 2G or 3G, that a current service type is short message; receiving, by the network element, a short message sent by an MME; and delivering, by the network element, the short message to a terminal through an established PS connection.