The invention discloses a mobile terminal and an application power consumption control method. The mobile terminal comprises a setting module for setting white list applications and grey list applications according to a preset strategy; a memory management module for cleaning out applications except the white list applications and grey list applications operated on the background from a memory after the mobile terminal enters a standby sleep state; and an application management module for forbidding one or more applications in the grey list applications operated on the background to carry out power consumption operation. According to the mobile terminal and the method, the applications are divided into a white list, a grey list and other applications, corresponding processing is carried out according to different characteristics of the applications, therefore, the system power consumption is reduced, and a user is enabled to have relatively good experience when using the mobile terminal and the method.