Embodiments of the present application disclose a method for detecting a control channel and a terminal device. The method includes: a terminal device receives a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH, where the first PDCCH is used to schedule a first data channel, and the first PDCCH carries first indication information which is used to indicate execution of a skipping operation for a PDCCH by the terminal device; and the terminal device executes the skipping operation in case of successful transmission of the first data channel. The method and the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application can more dynamically support power saving of the terminal device.