Embodiment of this application provide methods and apparatuses for communicating downlink control information. One method includes: dividing, by a terminal device, target resources into M resource subsets; determining, by the terminal device, a resource set from the M resource subsets, wherein the resource set consists of N control channel bearing resource units, N≥2, at least two of the N control channel bearing resource units belong to different resource subsets of the M resource subsets, and at least two of the N control channel bearing resource units are not consecutive in the frequency domain, wherein each of the N control channel bearing resource units includes at least two resource element groups (REGs) that are consecutive in the frequency domain, and wherein each REG of the at least two REGs comprises a plurality of resource elements (REs); and receiving, by the terminal device, downlink control information on the resource set.