A volume adjustment method and apparatus, and a terminal is presented. Perform analysis on the collected sound signal surrounding a user terminal, to obtain composition information, where the composition information includes sound types included in the sound signal and proportions of sounds of the various types, and the sound types include blank sound, human sound, and noise; determine a current scene mode of the user terminal according to the composition information; and adjust volume of the user terminal according to the determined scene mode, thereby significantly reducing occurrence of a case, caused by mistaken determining of the scenario, in which play volume adjustment does not conform to the scenario, and enhancing user experience.