A low power-consuming encoding method and an apparatus are provided. The method includes: receiving a quantity of skip macroblocks and a quantity of macroblocks whose motion vectors (MVs) are a preset value, where the quantity of skip macroblocks and the quantity of macroblocks whose MVs are the preset value are corresponding to a target frame and are sent by a target encoder; obtaining an encoding complexity index according to the quantity of skip macroblocks and the quantity of macroblocks whose MVs are the preset value, and determining a scenario type corresponding to the target frame; and using a secondary encoder as the target encoder if a quantity of first pre-determined scenarios in scenario types separately corresponding to multiple consecutive target frames is greater than a threshold. Power consumed by the secondary encoder is less than power consumed by a primary encoder, which effectively reduces power consumption of encoding.