The embodiment of the present application discloses a method for random access and a terminal device. The method includes: a terminal device determines a backoff time of a random access event according to a priority of the random access event, where the random access event with the First priority corresponds to a first backoff time range, a random access event with a second priority corresponds to a second backoff time range, the first priority is higher than the second priority, and the first backoff time range and the second backoff time range do not overlap; and after the backoff time, the terminal device re-initiates the random access procedure.