Remove Pages from PDF
Delete pages from a PDF by clicking them or by typing page numbers, then download the rest. Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser so the file never leaves your device.
Your original file is never modified.
How to remove pages from a PDF
Blank backs from a duplex scan, a fax cover sheet, an internal appendix nobody outside the company should see. Documents pick up pages that do not belong in them, and taking those pages out is three steps.
- 1
Open your PDF
Drag the file in or click to browse. Every page is drawn as a thumbnail, so you can recognise the blank ones and the cover sheets on sight.
- 2
Mark what goes
Click any page to mark it for removal, or type page numbers like 2, 5-7 to mark several at once. Clicking a marked page puts it back, so nothing is committed while you decide.
- 3
Download the trimmed PDF
Press the button and a new document is built from the pages you kept. Your original file is untouched, so you can start over with a different selection.
Pages that should not be there
Almost every document you did not create yourself has some.
Blank pages from scanning
Delete pages in PDF scans that are the blank backs of double-sided sheets before sending the file on.
Cover and fax sheets
Erase PDF pages carrying a transmission notice nobody needs to read before filing the document.
Internal appendices
Cut the pages meant for your team out before the report goes to a client.
Duplicate pages
Delete page from PDF files where the feeder pulled the same sheet through twice.
Trimming a form
Delete pages from PDF document packs that are pure instructions, keeping only the sheets that need signing.
Adverts in a downloaded ebook
Remove pages PDF publishers add for promotion before the file goes on a reader.
Statements and invoices
Delete pages PDF statements repeat on every issue, like the standing terms and conditions.
Keeping one section
Delete the pages in PDF documents that surround the part you want, which is the fastest way to extract a chapter.
What happens when you remove a page
Removing a page is not an erase. Knowing what the file actually does explains why the result stays sharp, why the size usually drops, and why the content you took out is genuinely gone.
How to remove pages from a PDF
A new document is created and the pages you kept are copied into it. The pages you marked are simply never copied, so they do not exist in the file you download.
That matters more than it sounds. Some tools hide a page instead of removing it, which means the content is still in the file and can be recovered by anyone who looks. Copying only what you kept avoids that entirely.
It is the same operation whichever way you phrase it: how to remove pages from PDF, how to delete pages from PDF, how to delete pages in PDF, how to delete PDF pages, PDF remove pages, remove PDF pages and PDF delete pages all describe this one copy-what-you-keep step.
Delete, remove or erase
People search for all three and mean exactly the same thing. PDF erase pages and erase PDF pages are the least used of the three, which makes them the easiest to answer well.
There is no technical difference behind the words. Nothing is scrubbed, shredded or overwritten in place, because the file you download is a fresh document that never contained those pages.
The one distinction worth knowing is between removing a whole page and covering something up on a page. This tool does the first. Hiding a paragraph under a black box is the second, and it belongs in whatever produced the document.
Why the file usually gets smaller
Deleted pages take their images and fonts with them if nothing else in the document uses them. A twenty-page scan trimmed to twelve pages typically loses close to a third of its size.
The drop is not guaranteed. If the pages you removed were mostly text sharing the same embedded fonts as everything else, the saving is small, because the fonts are still needed by the pages you kept.
If size is the actual goal, Compress PDF will do more than deleting a few pages ever could.
Blank pages and duplex scanning
A double-sided scanner captures both sides of every sheet whether or not the back has anything on it. A ten-sheet document printed on one side becomes a twenty-page PDF, half of it blank.
The blanks are rarely perfectly white. Scanners pick up paper texture, shadow at the edges and show-through from the printed side, which is why software that claims to detect blank pages often misses them.
Looking at thumbnails and clicking the empty ones takes a few seconds and gets it right every time. On a long batch the blanks are usually every second page, so typing 2, 4, 6, 8 is faster still.
Removing compared with splitting
Removing produces one file with fewer pages. Splitting produces several files that together contain everything. Which one you want depends on whether the pages you took out need to go anywhere.
If you are cutting an appendix and nobody needs it, delete. If the appendix should go to a different person, split the document into two files instead, using Split PDF.
To extract a section, either works. Deleting everything around it is usually the more direct route when the section is small and easy to spot.
Why nothing is uploaded
Everything runs in JavaScript inside this page. Your PDF is read into browser memory, the new document is assembled there, and the download comes straight from your own machine.
No copy reaches a server, so there is nothing to expire, nothing cached and nothing to delete afterwards. Close the tab and it is over.
That is worth something when the page you are removing is exactly the one that should not be seen. Handing your document to an online PDF remove pages service to strip a confidential page from it rather defeats the purpose.
Working safely
Removing pages is easy to get slightly wrong, and easy to check.
- Nothing is removed until you press the download button, so mark anything you are unsure about and unmark it if you change your mind.
- On a long document, typing 2, 4, 6, 8 is far quicker than hunting for the blank backs by eye.
- Page numbers here are positions in the file, counting from one. They may not match the numbers printed on the pages if the document has front matter.
- Check the count in the header before downloading. It tells you how many pages are marked, which is the quickest way to confirm you got the right ones.
- The tool will not let you delete every page, because an empty PDF is not a valid file.
- Your original is never modified. The download is a new document, so the file on your device stays exactly as it was.
Questions, answered
What removal actually does and what you get back.
Open the file, click the pages you want gone or type their numbers like 2, 5-7, then press the download button. A new PDF is built from the pages you kept and your original is left untouched.
Related tools
Other things you can do here without signing up.