How to split a PDF or pull out only the pages you need

“Split a PDF” can mean three different jobs, and each has its own tool. Pick the one that matches what you want to end up with.

Which job is yours?

• Divide the whole document into several files — every page ends up somewhere. Use Split PDF.
• Take a few pages out into a new file and ignore the rest. Use Extract PDF Pages.
• Keep the document but drop some pages. Use Delete PDF Pages.

Extracting and deleting are two ways of reaching the same result, so choose whichever list is shorter. To keep three pages out of fifty, name the three you want and extract them. To lose three pages out of fifty, name the three you do not want and delete them.

How to write page ranges

All three accept the same notation you would type into a print dialog. A hyphen makes a range, a single number is one page, and commas separate the parts:

• 1-5 — pages 1 to 5
• 8 — page 8 only
• 1-5, 8, 12-20 — all of the above together

Spaces are ignored, and a range that runs past the last page is flagged before anything is created.

One thing catches people out: ranges count pages by their position in the file, not by the number printed on the page. A report with a cover, a contents page and a preface numbered i to iv may print “1” on what is really the seventh page of the file. Go by the page counter in your PDF reader — “7 of 40” — rather than by the number in the footer.

Split a PDF step by step

1. Add your file to Split PDF.
2. Choose a mode: ranges you type, every N pages (for example, every 2 pages for a stack of two-page forms), or one file per page.
3. Check the summary, which lists exactly which pages go into each file.
4. Press Split and download the files individually or together as a ZIP.

Three worked examples

Chapters of a report. A 40-page report has three chapters. Choose custom ranges and enter 1-12, 13-28, 29-40. You get three PDFs of 12, 16 and 12 pages, each named after the range it contains.

A stack of scanned forms. Thirty pages came out of the scanner as one file, but they are really ten three-page forms. Choose every N pages with N set to 3, and you get ten files of three pages each — no ranges to type.

One page per file. A set of certificates or payslips that each need to go to a different person: choose one file per page and every page becomes its own numbered PDF, delivered together in a ZIP.

Extracting also reorders

Extract PDF Pages copies pages in the order you list them. Typing 5, 1, 3 produces a new document in exactly that order, which makes it a quick way to pull a summary page to the front. You can choose the pages by clicking their thumbnails instead of typing, and you can have the extracted pages as one file or as separate files in a ZIP.

Does splitting reduce quality?

No. Pages are copied, not re-drawn, so text stays selectable and images are untouched. Your original file is only read, never changed, and it is not uploaded anywhere — the splitting happens in your browser. If you later need the pieces back together, Merge PDF recombines them.

What splitting does not change

• Numbers printed on the pages. A page that says “Page 14 of 40” in its footer still says so after it becomes page 1 of a new file, because that text is part of the page. If the new file needs its own numbering, add it with Add Page Numbers to PDF.
• The size of each page's content. Splitting a scan in half gives two files that together weigh about the same as the original. If the goal is a smaller file rather than fewer pages, see how to reduce PDF file size.
• Anything hidden in the pages you keep. Splitting removes whole pages. It does not remove a name or a number from a page you are still sending — for that, see how to redact a PDF properly.

Splitting to get under a size limit

There is no mode that splits by megabytes, because the size of a page is not known until it is written out. Split by page count instead and check the sizes of the pieces: if a 60 MB scan of 120 pages has to go through a 25 MB limit, splitting every 40 pages gives three files of roughly 20 MB each, provided the pages are similar. If one part is still too large, split that part again. Number the parts in the file names — part 1 of 3, part 2 of 3 — so the person receiving them knows when they have everything.