The invention provides an air conditioner refrigerant leakage detection method and an air conditioner. A refrigerant loop is involved in the air conditioner refrigerant leakage detection method, a detectable additive is added in the refrigerant loop, a detection device is arranged outside the refrigerant loop, the detection device is used for detecting the concentration of the part, outside the refrigerant loop, of the additive in the refrigerant loop and feeding the concentration back to a controller, and the controller runs the corresponding control program according to a detection result and the pre-storage relationship. According to the air conditioner refrigerant leakage detection method, the situation that when a refrigerant is leaked, a compressor with leakage situation is directlystarted during starting of the air conditioner, and then further damage is caused to the air conditioner is avoided, then the detection deviation caused by other external factors is avoided, a multi-stage different-state same-element difference value comparison method is adopted, meanwhile, the detection factors are corrected, so that misjudgment is reduced, the accuracy of refrigerant leakage detection is improved, and the comfort of the user experience is improved.