The present invention discloses an SSE (server-sent event) specification-based message push method and device. The method comprises the following steps that: an SSE long connection is built between a server and a terminal; whether a message to be pushed exits is monitored in real time; when it is monitored that a message to be pushed exits, the message to be pushed is sent to the terminal. According to the above method, since the SSE specification is a lightweight protocol, the SSE specification is not required to be deployed additionally compared with the Websocket protocol, at the same time, the technology of the SSE specification is relatively simple compared with that of the Websocket protocol, and requirements for developers are low; since the SSE specification supports one-way communication between the server side and the terminal, that is, as long as a new message exists at the server side, the new message can be pushed to the terminal, the terminal does not need to perform polling, and thus, the real-time push of the message can be ensured; and a connection between the server side and the terminal is a long connection, and therefore, bandwidth can be saved.