A terminal software upgrade method, for applying to a terminal, and the terminal being installed with a near-field communication, NFC, sensing circuit and a physical connection between a chip pin of the near-field communication sensing circuit with a boot-up pin of the terminal, and the terminal software upgrade method includes: in response to a distance between a near-field communication instruction writing circuit and the terminal reaching an effective communication distance of a near-field communication, writing (S11, S21, S31, S41, S51, S61) instruction information sent by the near-field communication instruction writing circuit into the near-field communication sensing circuit, wherein the instruction information comprises at least boot-up instruction information and upgrade configuration information, the upgrade configuration information comprising information about a software upgrade package; in response to that the boot-up instruction information is a preset instruction, by the physical connection between the chip pin of the near-field communication sensing circuit with the boot-up pin of the terminal, controlling (S12, S23, S32, S42, S52, S62) a boot-up level of the terminal to rise via the near-field communication sensing circuit and making the terminal in a powered-on status; performing verification of integrity of the software upgrade package based on check code in the software upgrade package; and upgrading (S13, S33, S44, S54, S63) software of the terminal based on the upgrade configuration information by: in response to that the verification is passed, implementing a software upgrade based on the software upgrade package and a restarting operation of the terminal; and in response to that the verification fails, clearing up operating traces of the software upgrade, and controlling the terminal to shut down through the near-field communication sensing circuit; wherein the boot-up instruction information comprises a specific identification that is used to determine whether the boot-up instruction information is the preset instruction, and the preset instruction is a Type 4 Tag, T4T, instruction in a near-field communication protocol. in response to a distance between a near-field communication instruction writing circuit and the terminal reaching an effective communication distance of a near-field communication, writing (S11, S21, S31, S41, S51, S61) instruction information sent by the near-field communication instruction writing circuit into the near-field communication sensing circuit, wherein the instruction information comprises at least boot-up instruction information and upgrade configuration information, the upgrade configuration information comprising information about a software upgrade package; in response to that the boot-up instruction information is a preset instruction, by the physical connection between the chip pin of the near-field communication sensing circuit with the boot-up pin of the terminal, controlling (S12, S23, S32, S42, S52, S62) a boot-up level of the terminal to rise via the near-field communication sensing circuit and making the terminal in a powered-on status; performing verification of integrity of the software upgrade package based on check code in the software upgrade package; and upgrading (S13, S33, S44, S54, S63) software of the terminal based on the upgrade configuration information by: in response to that the verification is passed, implementing a software upgrade based on the software upgrade package and a restarting operation of the terminal; and in response to that the verification fails, clearing up operating traces of the software upgrade, and controlling the terminal to shut down through the near-field communication sensing circuit; wherein the boot-up instruction information comprises a specific identification that is used to determine whether the boot-up instruction information is the preset instruction, and the preset instruction is a Type 4 Tag, T4T, instruction in a near-field communication protocol. in response to that the verification is passed, implementing a software upgrade based on the software upgrade package and a restarting operation of the terminal; and in response to that the verification fails, clearing up operating traces of the software upgrade, and controlling the terminal to shut down through the near-field communication sensing circuit; wherein the boot-up instruction information comprises a specific identification that is used to determine whether the boot-up instruction information is the preset instruction, and the preset instruction is a Type 4 Tag, T4T, instruction in a near-field communication protocol.