Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for buffering data, which can perform highly reliable buffering processing on a received first data packet and further improve user experience. The method includes: receiving a first data packet; determining whether to perform accelerated transmission on data in the first data packet; and if it is determined not to perform accelerated transmission on the data in the first data packet, using a first manner to buffer the first data packet; and if it is determined to perform accelerated transmission on the data in the first data packet, using a second manner to buffer the first data packet, where a buffer duration in the second manner is greater than a buffer duration in the first manner. The present invention is applicable to the communications field.