Embodiments of this application provide a data processing method and apparatus. The method includes: parsing, by a user plane data processing network element, a received packet and determining first service type information of a data flow to which the packet belongs; obtaining, by the user plane data processing network element, second service type information of the data flow from a data analysis network element; and processing, by the user plane data processing network element, the data flow based on the first service type information and the second service type information. With the data processing method and apparatus disclosed herein, accuracy in identifying a service type of transmitted data can be improved.