The short answer
Drop the PDF into the tool below. The Split option is already selected. Under Split into, choose Every page to get one PDF per page, or Ranges to type groups of pages separated by commas. Press Split PDF, then download each part or all of them with Download as ZIP.
If you only need a few pages as one new file, switch to Extract pages instead: tick the pages you want and press Extract selected pages. Your original PDF is never changed; the tool always writes new files.
Try it here: Split PDF
Open the full tool pageSplit, extract or delete: which one you need
These three jobs sound alike but produce different results. Picking the right one saves you a round of cleanup afterwards.
| You want | Use | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Each page as its own file | Split, Every page | As many PDFs as there are pages |
| Chapters or invoices as separate files | Split, Ranges | One PDF per range you type |
| A few pages as one new document | Extract pages | One PDF with the selected pages |
| The same document minus some pages | Reorder, rotate, delete | One PDF without the deleted pages |
How to write page ranges
In Ranges mode, every group you separate with a comma becomes one file. Inside a group, a hyphen means from and to. Spaces do not matter, so 1-3,4-6 and 1-3, 4-6 give the same result.
- 1-3, 4-6, 7- creates three files: pages 1 to 3, pages 4 to 6, and page 7 to the end.
- 1, 2-10 creates two files: the cover page alone and pages 2 to 10.
- 5 creates a single file containing only page 5.
- -3 is the same as 1-3, and 12- runs from page 12 to the last page, whatever the page count is.
- Pages that are not in any group are simply left out, so 2-4 on a 10 page PDF gives one file with pages 2, 3 and 4.
- A range like 6-2 (end before start) is not accepted. Write the lower number first.
Splitting every N pages
There is no separate field for a fixed page count, but ranges handle it with one line. To cut a 40 page PDF into files of 10 pages, type 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-. For two page documents, such as invoices with a terms page, type 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and so on, ending the last group with a hyphen so nothing is lost at the end.
If every document in a scanned stack has exactly one page, Every page is quicker: you get one file per page, each named after the original file plus its page number, for example scan-1.pdf, scan-2.pdf.
Clean up pages while you split
Splitting works on the pages as they appear in the thumbnail grid. That means you can fix the document first and split it in the same pass.
Rotate pages that are sideways with the rotate button on the thumbnail, or select several and use Rotate left or Rotate right. With nothing selected, the toolbar rotates every page. Delete blank scanner pages with the delete button on each thumbnail; they turn grey and are left out. Changed your mind? Press delete again or use Restore all. You can also drag pages into a different order.
Note that range numbers count the pages that remain in the grid. If you delete page 2 of a 10 page file, the old page 3 becomes page 2 in your ranges. When you plan to type ranges, delete pages first and then read the numbers from the grid.
Other ways to split a PDF
If you just need one or two pages, the print dialog of your system can do it. In Chrome or Edge, open the PDF, press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac), set Destination to Save as PDF and enter the pages under Pages. On a Mac, Preview can also do this: show View > Thumbnails, select the pages and drag them to the desktop, which saves them as a new PDF.
These methods save one selection at a time and some of them re print the pages, which can drop links and bookmarks or change the file size. For several parts at once, or for long documents, a splitter that copies the pages directly is faster and keeps the pages exactly as they were.
Common problems and fixes
- The tool says the pages are not valid: check for ranges that run backwards (6-2) or contain letters, and make sure groups are separated by commas.
- The PDF will not open: it is probably password protected. Remove the password in your PDF reader and open it again.
- You got two files instead of one: a group like 1-3, 5 is two files (pages 1 to 3, and page 5), not one. To put pages 1 to 3 and 5 into a single file, use Extract pages and tick them.
- The split files are almost as large as the original: shared images or fonts are stored in each part. Compress the parts that are too big with Compress PDF.
- Bookmarks are missing in the parts: they belong to the whole document and are not copied into split files.