Split PDF
Split a PDF into separate files or extract specific pages. Choose page ranges or split every N pages, then download the results.
Large PDF files often contain more than you need to share. This splitter lets you extract specific pages or break a document into smaller chunks - pulling out chapter three from a textbook, extracting pages 5-10 from a report, or dividing a 100-page scan into 10-page batches. Everything runs in your browser using the pdf-lib library.
About Split PDF
Two Ways to Split
| Mode | How It Works | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Extract Pages | Enter specific page numbers (e.g. 1,3,5-8) to pull into a new PDF | Grabbing specific pages - a cover page, a single chapter, or scattered pages |
| Split Every N Pages | Breaks the document into equal chunks of N pages each | Dividing long documents into sections - 10 pages per file, for example |
Page Selection Syntax
When using Extract Pages mode, you can specify individual pages, ranges, or a mix of both:
| Input | Result | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Page 5 only | Extract a single page |
| 1,3,7 | Pages 1, 3, and 7 | Cherry-pick specific pages |
| 5-10 | Pages 5 through 10 | Extract a continuous range (a chapter) |
| 1,3,5-8,12 | Pages 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 12 | Mix of individual pages and ranges |
| 1-3,10-15 | Pages 1-3 and 10-15 | Multiple separate sections |
Common Split Scenarios
| Scenario | Recommended Mode | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Extract one chapter from a book | Extract Pages | Enter the page range for that chapter (e.g. 25-48) |
| Pull out a single page (receipt, certificate) | Extract Pages | Enter the page number (e.g. 3) |
| Break a long scan into manageable files | Split Every N Pages | Set N to 10 or 20 depending on the document |
| Separate a multi-section report | Extract Pages | Run multiple extractions, one per section |
| Remove pages before sharing | Extract Pages | Enter only the pages you want to keep |
| Create handouts from a presentation | Extract Pages | Pick the slide pages that are relevant to the audience |
What Gets Preserved in Split PDFs?
| Element | Preserved? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Page content (text, images, vectors) | Yes | Pages are copied exactly from the original |
| Page dimensions and orientation | Yes | Portrait and landscape pages keep their size |
| Embedded fonts | Yes | Text renders correctly in the split files |
| Annotations | Yes | Comments and highlights on extracted pages carry over |
| Form fields | Yes | Interactive form fields on extracted pages are preserved |
| Cross-page links | May break | Links pointing to pages not included in the split file will not work |
| Document bookmarks | No | The bookmark tree is not rebuilt for the split output |
File Size After Splitting
The output file size depends on what is on the extracted pages. Pages with large embedded images contribute more to file size than text-only pages.
| Original PDF | Pages Extracted | Approximate Output Size |
|---|---|---|
| 50-page text report (2 MB) | 5 pages | ~200 KB |
| 100-page scanned document (80 MB) | 10 pages | ~8 MB |
| 20-page image-heavy brochure (15 MB) | 3 pages | ~2-3 MB |
| 200-page ebook (5 MB) | 1 chapter (20 pages) | ~500 KB |
Shared resources like fonts may be duplicated in the output, so the split file is not always exactly proportional to the number of pages extracted.
Split PDF vs Other Approaches
| Approach | Privacy | Page Selection | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| This tool (browser) | Files never leave your device | Ranges and individual pages | Free |
| Online PDF splitters | Files uploaded to servers | Usually ranges only | Free tier with limits |
| Adobe Acrobat | Local processing | Full page management | Subscription |
| macOS Preview | Local processing | Drag pages to desktop | Free (macOS only) |
| pdftk (command line) | Local processing | Ranges, burst mode | Free |
If you need to combine files instead, use the Merge PDF tool. To rearrange pages within a single document without splitting into separate files, try the PDF Page Reorder tool. All processing happens client-side in your browser - your files are never uploaded, making this safe for confidential documents.
How Does PDF Splitting Work in the Browser?
PDF splitting reads the original file into memory, copies the selected page objects into a new PDF document, and serialises the result back to a downloadable file. This tool uses the open-source pdf-lib library, which implements the PDF 1.7 specification (ISO 32000-1) entirely in JavaScript. No server-side rendering is involved, so the content of your PDF is never transmitted over the network.
Worked example: A 48-page contract needs to be split so that pages 1-12 (definitions) go to the legal team and pages 30-48 (signatures and schedules) go to finance. Using Extract Pages mode, you enter 1-12, download that file, then enter 30-48 and download again. Each run copies the page tree entries for the specified indices, re-references the shared font and image resources, and writes a new cross-reference table. The original file is never modified.
Why Split PDFs Instead of Sharing the Whole File?
Splitting reduces the amount of information you share, which matters for both privacy and practicality. Sending only the pages a recipient needs avoids exposing unrelated material (cover letters, draft sections, earlier revisions) and keeps attachment sizes under the Gmail 25 MB and Outlook.com 20 MB per-message limits documented by Google and Microsoft. For legal workflows, splitting is also used to separate privileged material before a document is produced in response to a disclosure request.
The US Courts' CM/ECF filing system caps individual PDF uploads at 35 MB per document, which forces lawyers to split long exhibits into separate filings. UK tribunals have similar limits (HM Courts and Tribunals Service specifies 20 MB per document for most digital filings). A splitter is the simplest way to comply without re-exporting from the original source.
What Can Go Wrong When Splitting PDFs?
Most issues come from document features that do not survive a page copy operation. The PDF structure stores some data at the document level rather than the page level, and splitting discards anything that is not reachable from the extracted pages.
- Password-protected PDFs: Encrypted files must be decrypted before splitting. This tool attempts to ignore owner-level restrictions but cannot open PDFs with a user password.
- Digital signatures: A signed PDF becomes invalid the moment you modify it. Splitting invalidates signatures because the byte range protected by the signature no longer matches. Re-sign the split file if a valid signature is required.
- Bookmarks and table of contents: The outline tree at the document level is not reconstructed in the split output. Navigation via thumbnails still works.
- Cross-page links: A link on page 5 that points to page 30 will not resolve if page 30 is not included. External web links are preserved.
- Tagged accessibility structure: The StructTreeRoot that screen readers use may not carry over completely. If accessibility tagging is important, re-run the source document through a dedicated accessibility checker after splitting.
Page Range Syntax Reference
The syntax supports comma-separated individual pages, dash-separated ranges, and a mix of both. Whitespace is ignored. Pages are output in ascending order regardless of the order you type them - if you enter 5,1,3, the result contains pages 1, 3, 5 in that sequence.
| Syntax Detail | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Out-of-range pages | Silently skipped. Entering 1,50 on a 10-page PDF extracts only page 1. |
| Reversed range | Treated as invalid. 8-5 produces no output for that segment. |
| Duplicate pages | Deduplicated. 1,1,1 produces a one-page file, not three. |
| Extra whitespace | Tolerated. 1, 3 , 5-8 works identically to 1,3,5-8. |
| Trailing comma | Ignored. 1,3,5, is treated as 1,3,5. |
Split PDF vs Convert and Re-export
Some users try to split PDFs by printing selected pages through a virtual PDF printer. This works but re-rasterises text-based pages into images, losing selectability, searchability, and tagging. A true page-copy split keeps the original content streams intact. For a 20-page text PDF, the printed approach can inflate the file by 5-10x and destroy the ability to copy text. The page-copy approach used here keeps the output close to the input size and preserves every object that is still reachable.
When to Use Extract Pages vs Split Every N
Extract Pages is the right choice when you know exactly which pages you need - a specific chapter, a cover letter, or a signature page. Split Every N is better for batching - breaking a 200-page scanned archive into 10-page sections that fit email attachment limits, or dividing a long deposition transcript into daily segments. If you need more than a few extraction runs, Split Every N is faster because it produces all the output files in a single pass.
Privacy and Client-Side Processing
Every operation here runs in the browser tab that loaded the page. There is no upload, no background sync, and no temporary server-side copy. This matters for documents that contain personal data falling under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR regimes - patient records, payslips, tax returns, legal correspondence - where transmission to a third-party server would expand the chain of custody. The Information Commissioner's Office guidance on data minimisation notes that reducing the number of parties who handle personal data is a core principle of lawful processing, and a browser-only tool keeps that chain to exactly one party: you.
If you close the tab or navigate away, the PDF bytes held in memory are released by the browser's garbage collector. The only artefact left on disk is the split file you chose to download, saved to your normal Downloads folder. For an even cleaner workflow, open the tool in a private or incognito window - the tab's memory is wiped when the window closes and no history entry is kept.
Common Questions From First-Time Users
A few patterns come up repeatedly in support conversations across PDF tooling communities:
- "Can I split a PDF by bookmarks?" Not directly with this tool. Open the PDF in your viewer, note the page numbers for each bookmark, then extract those ranges.
- "Why is my split file almost the same size as the original?" PDFs share resources (fonts, images) across pages. Splitting duplicates any resource referenced by the extracted pages, so a 10-page split of a font-heavy 100-page document can still be 30-40% of the original size.
- "Can I split pages in half horizontally or vertically?" That is a different operation - page cropping - which requires a crop tool rather than a splitter. This tool splits at page boundaries only.
- "Will splitting reduce the quality of my scanned document?" No. Pages are copied byte-for-byte at the PDF object level, so image resolution and compression settings are unchanged.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I extract specific pages from a PDF?
Upload your PDF, select "Extract Pages" mode, and enter the page numbers you want. Use commas for individual pages (1,3,5) and dashes for ranges (5-8). The tool creates a new PDF with just those pages.
Can I split a PDF into equal parts?
Yes. Choose "Split Every N Pages" mode and enter the number of pages per file. For example, splitting a 10-page PDF every 2 pages creates 5 separate files.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. Everything runs in your browser using JavaScript. Your PDF never leaves your device.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no hard limit, but since processing happens in your browser, very large PDFs (over 100 MB) may be slow. For most documents it takes just a few seconds.
Will the split PDFs keep the original formatting?
Yes. Each page is copied exactly as it appears in the original, including text, images, and layout.
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