Abstract: A container-based application management method and apparatus are disclosed. A container-based serverless computing system is configured such that an application instance is allowed to be in one of an online state and a low-power state at runtime. In response to scaling down an application, at least one first application instance of the application in the online state is caused to enter the low-power state; and in response to scaling up the application, at least one second application instance of the application in the low-power state is caused to enter the online state. In this way, not only the cost of the application instance can be reduced, but also rapid elastic scaling can be performed on the application instance.