Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, an apparatus and a system for data connection management. The method for data connection management includes: obtaining, by a user equipment UE, first instruction information, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing to close or open a data connection; and transmitting, by the UE, the first instruction information to a packet data network gateway P-GW, for enabling the P-GW to stop or start data transmission of at least one bearer of the UE according to the first instruction information. By adopting the embodiments, a traffic of a terminal is effectively controlled, thus an additional cost of a user is reduced.