A touchscreen input method and a terminal are provided. The method includes, when a signal for waking up a touchscreen is received, obtaining on the touchscreen an effective touch area that corresponds to the signal for waking up the touchscreen according to a preset correspondence between the signal for waking up the touchscreen and the effective touch area. The method also includes detecting position information of a touch point within the effective touch area and generating an operation instruction according to the position information of the touch point. The embodiments of the present invention also disclose a terminal. The terminal can accurately obtain a touch point in a preset touch area when the terminal is being woken up.