How to split a PDF on this page
- Add one PDF. Drop it on the box at the top or click to browse. This tool works on a single document at a time.
- Wait for the thumbnails. Every page is drawn as a small preview, filling in from the first page onward. The header above the grid shows the file name, the page count and the file size.
- Choose your pages. Click any thumbnail to select or deselect it, use Select all or Clear, or type page numbers into the box below the grid.
- Pick an output mode. One combined PDF, or a separate PDF for each page you selected.
- Extract and download. The button counts your selection so you can double check before clicking.
The whole job runs inside this page on your own device, so the document is never uploaded to a server.
Selecting pages: thumbnails and the range box
The grid and the text box are two views of the same selection and they stay in step. Click page 2, then pages 3 and 4, and the box fills in as 2-4. Type 1-3, 7 into the box and those four thumbnails light up. Commas separate entries and dashes make ranges, so 1-3, 7, 12-14 means twelve pages in three groups.
A few behaviors are worth knowing before you trust a long range:
- Ranges are read low to high either way round, so 7-3 selects the same pages as 3-7.
- Page numbers past the end of the document are quietly ignored. Typing 1-999 on a 12-page file simply selects all 12.
- Repeats do nothing. 1, 1, 2 selects two pages, not three, and no page can appear twice in the output.
- Anything other than digits, commas and dashes makes the box stop updating the grid until the text is valid again. If your clicks stop registering in the box, check for a stray character.
- Clearing the box clears the selection, and the extract button goes back to reading "Select pages to extract."
What each output contains
One combined PDF gives you a single file containing only your selected pages, named after the original with "-pages" on the end. Pages are always written in ascending order, no matter which order you clicked them in.
Separate PDF per page gives you one single-page PDF for every page you selected, each named after the original with "-page-3", "-page-7" and so on. Because that is several files, they always arrive together inside one ZIP, even when you selected just one page. The ZIP stores the files rather than squeezing them, since PDFs are already compressed, so unzipping is instant and Windows, macOS, iOS and Android can all open it without extra software.
In both modes the pages are copied across as they stand rather than re-drawn, so quality is untouched: text is still real, selectable, searchable text, and images keep their original resolution. The output is built as a new document with your pages copied into it, which means anything living at document level rather than on a page does not come along, most noticeably the bookmark or outline panel and interactive form definitions.
Your original file is only ever read. It is not modified, moved or replaced, and everything you download is a new copy. Both modes name their output after the file you started with, so a document called contract produces contract-pages.pdf or a contract-pages.zip full of contract-page-1.pdf and friends. Nothing is overwritten, and running the tool twice with different selections simply gives you two downloads.
Selecting every page and extracting as one combined PDF is perfectly fine and gives you a page-for-page copy of the document. It is an easy way to see exactly what the extraction step does to a file before you rely on it for something that matters.
What people use it for
- Emailing three relevant pages instead of a 60-page report.
- Breaking a batch scan into one file per invoice, receipt or form.
- Pulling a single signed page out of a contract.
- Removing pages: select the pages you want to keep and extract those instead.
- Splitting a heavy document into pieces small enough to send, then shrinking each one with Compress PDF.
If something goes wrong
"This PDF could not be read." The file did not open at all. It may be damaged, or it may be locked with an open password, which this tool cannot bypass. Open it in your usual PDF viewer with the password, save an unprotected copy, and split that copy.
"This PDF could not be rendered." The file opened but the previews could not be drawn. That points at damage in the page content rather than the file structure.
A thumbnail is blank. That single page failed to draw. The tile still works and stays selectable, and the page itself is extracted normally, because extraction copies the page rather than using the preview.
Thumbnails are slow on a long document. Pages are drawn one after another, so a few hundred pages take a while on a phone. You do not have to wait: the range box works as soon as the grid appears.
Frequently asked questions
How do I delete pages from a PDF instead of extracting them?
Select the pages you want to keep and extract those as one combined PDF. The result is your document with the unwanted pages gone. Removing pages 4 and 5 from a 10-page file, for example, means typing 1-3, 6-10.
Can I change the page order while I split?
No. Whichever order you click in, the pages are written in ascending order. To rearrange, choose the separate PDF per page mode, then feed the individual files into Merge PDF in the order you want.
Does splitting lower the quality of the pages?
No. Pages are copied out of the original rather than re-rendered or re-compressed, so text stays selectable and searchable and images keep the resolution they already had.
Why did I get a ZIP file instead of a PDF?
The separate PDF per page mode always packages its results into one ZIP so you get a single download, even when only one page is selected. If you want a plain PDF, switch the output back to One combined PDF and extract again.
Need the opposite job? Merge PDF joins documents into one. The FAQ covers the site-wide questions about safety, limits and quality.