A method and an apparatus for learning an online state of a terminal are provided. In the embodiments of the present invention, when an online state of a terminal needs to be reported to a network side, the terminal sends a first message to a core network management entity, where the first message includes first indication information, so that the core network management entity sends the first indication information to a proxy server, and thereby the proxy server learns an online state of an application on the terminal, so as to avoid that an online state, of the application on the terminal, saved in the proxy server is incorrect.