The invention relates to a face recognition method and device in motion. The method comprises the steps of detecting a face recognition instruction; detecting the moving state of the mobile terminal according to the position sensor; when the mobile terminal is in a moving state, obtaining a moving speed; judging the movement speed, if the movement speed is greater than a first preset value, switching the operation mode of the mobile terminal from a first mode to a second mode, wherein the performance of the second mode occupying the resource of the mobile terminal is higher than that of the first mode; obtaining M continuous frames of face images through a camera; extracting a face image at intervals of N frames, wherein N < M, M/N < 10; and performing matching identification on the extracted face image and a pre-collected sample photo, and if more than two matching results are more than a second preset value, indicating that the face matching is successful, and after the matching is finished, switching the operation mode of the mobile terminal from the second mode to the first mode. According to the present invention, the face recognition can be rapidly carried out in a motion state, and the fault-tolerant capability and the recognition speed of face recognition are improved.