How to split a PDF
Drag your PDF onto the box or click to browse. The total page count appears once it loads.
Pick a mode. Each page as a separate PDF explodes the document, so 10 pages give you 10 files.Custom ranges lets you group pages instead.
In custom mode, type comma-separated groups like 1-3, 4-6, 7. Every group becomes one output PDF.
Press split and download. The parts get bundled into split.zip.
Writing ranges
A dash includes both ends. So 5-7 keeps pages 5, 6 and 7 together in one file, while a lone number pulls that single page out on its own. Mix them however you like, and 1-3, 4-6, 7 produces three PDFs in one run.
Overlaps are allowed too. Write 1-5, 3-8 and pages 3 through 5 land in both outputs, which is occasionally exactly what you want when two people need overlapping sections of the same document. The tool builds each group as written rather than trying to be clever about it.
Type a page that does not exist and you get an error, not a broken file.
The parts add up to more than the whole
Split a 10 MB PDF into ten files and the ten will total well over 10 MB.
That confuses people, and the reason is worth knowing. Every PDF has to stand on its own. It carries its own copy of the fonts it uses, its own colour profiles, its own embedded resources. In the original, a single copy of a font served all ten pages. After splitting, every output that uses that font needs its own copy.
So the shared material gets duplicated across the parts.
A document using three embedded fonts throughout will multiply that font data by however many files you produce. The effect is largest on short splits of font-heavy documents. It is smallest when you are separating scanned pages, since those carry images rather than shared fonts. Compress the parts afterwards if the total matters.
Mind the page numbers
The page numbers you type are positions in the file, counting from 1.
They are not the numbers printed on the pages, and those two drift apart constantly.
Reports open with a cover, a contents page, and sometimes a blank, so printed page 1 might be the fourth page of the PDF. Academic papers are worse. They number front matter in roman numerals, then restart at 1 for the body, which means the file contains two page 1s.
Get this wrong and every range is off by a consistent amount. That is easy to miss, because the output still looks like a perfectly valid document. It just contains the wrong pages.
Check before you split. Open the PDF, jump to the first page you actually want, and read the page counter in your reader rather than the number printed on the paper.
What survives the split
Page content comes through untouched. Nothing is re-encoded, so a 300 dpi scan stays 300 dpi, text stays selectable, and embedded fonts render the same. Splitting costs you no quality.
Structure is where things go missing. Bookmarks pointing at pages outside a given range have nowhere to land, and internal cross-references between pages that ended up in different files break for the same reason.
Digital signatures are invalidated by any structural change. Splitting is one. Same rule as merging.
Form fields carry over, though a field whose value depended on another field elsewhere in the document loses that link once the two end up in separate files.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a page or file size limit?
No fixed limit. The practical ceiling is your device's memory, so a phone gives up sooner than a laptop.
How do I write the ranges?
Comma-separated groups like 1-3, 4-6, 7. Each group becomes one PDF, dashes include both ends, and counting starts at 1.
Why is the download a ZIP?
Because splitting produces several files. Bundling them saves you clicking through each one.
Why do my split files total more than the original?
Each output PDF needs its own copy of any shared fonts and resources. That duplication is unavoidable if every part is to open on its own.
Can the same page appear in two outputs?
Yes. Overlapping ranges are allowed, so 1-5, 3-8 puts pages 3 to 5 in both files.
Will splitting reduce quality?
No. Pages are copied rather than re-encoded, so scans, text and fonts come through exactly as they went in.
Related: merge PDFs back together · delete pages from a PDF · extract specific pages · compress the parts.