A payment application isolation method and apparatus, and a terminal are provided. In the payment application isolation method, a payment application that is selected by a user and that is to be added to an isolation area is obtained; and if the to-be-added payment application has an attribute of being addable to a first isolation area, the to-be-added payment application is added to the first isolation area; or if the to-be-added payment application has an attribute of being addable to a second isolation area, the to-be-added payment application is added to the second isolation area. A payment application added to the first isolation area has an attribute of being invocable by a trusted application installed outside the first isolation area, and a payment application added to the second isolation area has an attribute of being completely isolated from an application installed outside the second isolation area.