Split PDF

Split a PDF Into Pages or Page Ranges

Two different jobs hide behind the word "split". One is *keep this part* — chapters 4 to 9 as their own file. The other is *break it apart* — a 40-page bank statement bundle that needs to become 40 separate files. This tool does both, and you pick which by choosing an output mode.

The two output modes

Selected pages as one PDF. Whatever range you type comes out as a single document named after your source with -split.pdf appended. Pages keep their original relative order regardless of how you type the selection.

Every page as its own PDF. Each page becomes a standalone one-page document, and all of them are bundled into a single ZIP named -split-pages.zip. Your browser downloads one file; unzip it to get the set.

The ZIP mode ignores your page selection and always covers the whole document. If you want single-page files for only part of a document, run the range mode first and feed the result back in.

Page selection syntax

The selection box accepts these forms, and you can combine them with commas:

1-3        pages 1, 2 and 3
1,4,7      those three pages only
2-5,9      a range plus a single page
last       the final page, whatever its number
odd        1, 3, 5, 7 ...
even       2, 4, 6, 8 ...
all        every page

Page numbers are one-based and match what your PDF reader shows in its page counter — not the number printed on the paper, which is often offset by a cover and a contents page. If the two disagree, trust the reader.

Out-of-range numbers are reported rather than silently dropped. Ask for 1-50 from a 30-page file and you get told the file has 30 pages.

Why a one-page split is not one page's worth of bytes

People are frequently surprised that pulling page 7 out of a 6 MB report produces a 4 MB file. Fonts, colour profiles and image XObjects live in shared resource dictionaries, and a single page can legitimately reference most of them. The split copies what the page needs; if the page needs a 30-font corporate template, that comes along.

This is not something the tool can fix without re-rendering the page and destroying the text layer. If size is the actual goal, that trade-off is what Compress PDF makes, and you should read what it costs before using it.

Split, extract, or delete?

These three overlap enough to be confusing:

• Use this page when you want single-page files, or when you think in terms of "cut here".
• Use Extract Pages when you want one new document holding a chosen subset. Same output as range mode; the interface is built around that single job.
• Use Delete Pages when the list of pages to throw away is shorter than the list to keep.

Things that break when a document is cut up

Internal links — a cross-reference pointing at "see page 112" — resolve to a page that is no longer in the file. Readers handle this quietly, so the link simply does nothing.

Encrypted files are rejected before you get to the selection box; decrypt with Unlock PDF first. Files up to 100 MB each are accepted, and everything happens in the tab you have open.