Split PDF online

How to split a PDF

1. Choose a PDF file.
2. Enter page ranges separated by commas, like 1-3,4-6,7, where each group becomes one output file.
3. Leave the field blank if you want every page split into its own separate one-page file.
4. Click Split PDF.
5. Download each resulting file from the list, and check page counts match what you expected.

Page numbers refer to the position in the original file (page 1 is the first page). Ranges can overlap or skip pages; the tool does not require them to cover every page.

What splitting does and how it works

Splitting reads your source PDF, then for each page range you specify, creates a brand-new PDF containing copies of just those pages, in their original order. If you leave the range field blank, the tool treats every page as its own one-page range, producing one file per page. Each output file is independent and can be downloaded, renamed, and used separately.

Best practices

• Know your page numbers before starting. Open the PDF first (or check the inline preview after choosing the file) to confirm which pages you actually want in each range.
• Use commas to separate ranges and hyphens for spans: "1-3,4-6,7" creates three files (pages 1-3, pages 4-6, and page 7 alone).
• Leave the field blank for a full one-page-per-file split, useful when you need every page as an individually shareable file.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Off-by-one page numbers. Page 1 is the first page of the document, matching how PDF viewers usually display page numbers, not a zero-based index.
• Ranges outside the document's page count, which will show a clear error naming the exact range that's out of bounds — check the total page count shown after choosing the file.
• Expecting the split files to be automatically zipped. Each output file downloads individually; there is no bundled ZIP archive.

Real-world use cases

• Pulling a single chapter or section out of a long report to share separately.
• Splitting a batch-scanned document (several forms scanned as one file) back into individual files.
• Breaking a large PDF into smaller pieces that fit under an email attachment size limit.
• Creating one file per invoice or statement from a combined multi-page export.

Supported formats

Input: a single standard, non-encrypted PDF file. Output: one or more standard PDF files, one per range you specify (or one per page if left blank). If you actually need image files instead of smaller PDFs, use PDF to JPG instead.

Worked example: splitting a 9-page report into three sections

A 9-page report with an executive summary (pages 1-2), body (pages 3-7), and appendix (pages 8-9) can be split with the range "1-2,3-7,8-9", producing three files:

Leaving the field blank on the same 9-page file would instead produce nine separate one-page files.

Limitations

This tool cannot open password-protected or encrypted PDFs. There is no ZIP download; each resulting file appears as its own download link. Ranges must reference real page numbers within the document; a range referencing a page beyond the document's length produces a clear error rather than a partial result.

Privacy

Your PDF is read and split locally in your browser using the pdf-lib JavaScript library loaded from this site. Files are not uploaded to a server. See the privacy policy for full detail.

Troubleshooting

• If you get an out-of-bounds error, check the exact page count of your file and adjust the range.
• If nothing downloads, confirm you selected a PDF (not an image or Word file).
• If you need the opposite operation, use merge PDF to recombine files.

Planning ranges for an unfamiliar document

For a document you didn't create yourself, it's easy to guess wrong about where one section ends and another begins. Before entering ranges, scroll through the source PDF (or use the inline preview after choosing the file here) and note the exact page number where each section starts, since section breaks in the visible content don't always line up with what you'd expect from a table of contents alone — a cover page, blank page, or divider can shift every subsequent page number by one. If you're not sure, split into individual pages first (leave the range field blank), review the results, and then merge the ones you actually want back together.

Split vs. extract: choosing the right tool

Split and extract solve related but different problems. Splitting takes one PDF and produces several output files, one per range you specify — useful when every range matters and you want each as its own file. Extracting (see extract PDF pages) takes one PDF and produces a single new file containing just the pages you listed, discarding the rest — useful when you only care about keeping one subset and don't need the remaining pages as separate files at all. If you find yourself splitting a file and then immediately deleting most of the resulting pieces, extract is usually the faster path to the same result.

Conclusion

Use this tool to break a PDF into smaller files by page range, or into one file per page. To combine files back together, use merge PDF; to keep just some pages in a single new file instead of several, use extract PDF pages.