The invention relates to a method for determining water content and moisture absorption mass increase rate of atmospheric particles. The process comprises that: 1) an atmospheric sample passes through a filtration membrane, particles in the atmosphere are collected on the filtration membrane, and sampling is stopped after a predetermined time to obtain a sample membrane adsorbed with the atmospheric particles in a sampling time; 2) the sample membrane is subjected to dry gas purging, water content of the purged moisture is quantitatively determined; and 3) gases with different humidity are repeatedly introduced to the sample membrane to carry out moisture absorption culture, weights of the filtration membrane before and after moisture absorption are weighed, and mass increase rate of the atmospheric sample under different humidity conditions is calculated. The present invention further discloses an apparatus for performing the method. With the present invention, base data is provided for dust-haze formation mechanism, air quality, atmospheric chemistry model development research and the like, and important effects are provided for researches of cloud water chemistry and physics, artificial influence on weather, atmospheric radiation and climate, and the like.