Split PDF
Split a PDF into separate files by page, by custom range or in fixed chunks, and download them all as one ZIP. Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser so the file never leaves your device.
Every part downloads together in a single ZIP.
How to split PDF pages
One file arrives and three people each need a different part of it. That is the whole problem, and it takes about twenty seconds to solve. Everything below happens on your own machine, so nothing is uploaded.
- 1
Open your PDF
Drag the file in or click to browse. The page count appears immediately and the first pages are drawn as thumbnails so you can see what you are cutting.
- 2
Choose how to split it
Every page separately turns a 10-page document into 10 files. Custom ranges lets you type something like 1-3, 4-8, 9. Fixed chunks cuts every N pages, which suits long uniform documents.
- 3
Download the ZIP
Press Split PDF and each part is built as its own document, then packed into a single ZIP so you get one download instead of twenty.
When one file should be several
Splitting is usually about who receives what.
Sending one chapter
Split a PDF document so a reader gets the twelve pages that concern them and not the two hundred that do not.
Scanned batches
One scan of forty invoices becomes forty files, one per page, ready to file individually.
Upload size limits
Split PDF into multiple files when a portal refuses anything over a few megabytes.
Distributing a report
Give each department its own section instead of asking everyone to find their pages.
Bank and card statements
Break a combined yearly download into one file per month.
Course material
Split PDF pages into separate handouts so each week stands on its own.
Contracts and annexes
Separate the agreement from its schedules before sending either one out.
Archiving
Split pages in PDF scans back into the individual documents that were originally stapled together.
What a PDF split actually does
Splitting looks like cutting and is really copying. Understanding that explains why the parts open perfectly, why quality never drops, and why the whole thing can run without a server.
How to split a PDF into separate files
Each output document is created empty, then the pages you selected are copied into it from the original. The page objects come across whole, carrying their text, fonts, vector art and embedded images with them.
Nothing is redrawn or re-compressed, which is why a split page looks identical to the page it came from. It is also why the operation is quick even on a document of several hundred pages.
Because each part is a real, self-contained PDF, it opens in any reader, prints normally and can be signed or merged like any other file. That is the answer to split PDF to PDF and PDF to PDF split, which sound like conversions and are simply this: PDFs in, smaller PDFs out.
Every way people ask for this
How to split PDF files, how to split PDF pages and how to split PDF file pages are one request. So are how to split pages of PDF, how to split up a PDF and split pages in PDF.
Split PDF document by pages usually means one file per page, which is the first mode below. Split PDF into pages and split PDF file into pages mean the same thing again.
They are listed here because search engines treat them as separate questions and people genuinely type all of them. The tool does not care which phrasing brought you here.
Choosing between the three modes
Every page separately is the right answer when the document is a batch of unrelated single pages. A scan of forty invoices is the classic case, and it gives you forty files named by page number.
Custom ranges suits a document with real sections. Typing 1-4, 5-12, 13-20 produces three files that match the chapters, and anything you leave out is simply not included.
Fixed chunks handles long uniform documents where the breaks do not matter much. Splitting a 300-page log every 50 pages gives six manageable files without you having to work out the boundaries.
Why the result arrives as a ZIP
A split that produces forty files would otherwise fire forty downloads, and most browsers block that after the first few. Packing them into one archive avoids the problem entirely.
The ZIP is built in memory on your device and handed to you directly. Every file inside is named after the pages it contains, so pages-5-8.pdf tells you what it holds before you open it.
Windows, macOS and Linux all open ZIP files without extra software, and every mobile file manager handles them too.
Why nothing is uploaded
The whole thing runs in JavaScript inside the page you are looking at. Your PDF is read into browser memory, the new files are assembled there, and the ZIP is produced there.
No copy is sent anywhere, so there is no upload queue, no processing server and no file sitting on a disk waiting for a cleanup job to find it. Close the tab and every trace is gone.
For a contract, a medical record or a bank statement that matters. Most sites offering to split PDF online free upload your document to their servers first, which is a reasonable thing to be uncomfortable with.
What this tool cannot do
It cannot open an encrypted PDF. Remove the password with Unlock PDF first, then split the unlocked copy.
It cannot join documents back together. Merge PDF does that, and it is the exact inverse of what happens here.
It cannot change the words on a page. A PDF stores text at fixed positions, so editing means going back to the source document or converting with PDF to Word.
Getting it right first time
A minute of checking saves re-splitting a long document.
- Check the preview line before you split. It tells you exactly how many files you are about to produce.
- With custom ranges, any page you leave out of every range is left out of the ZIP. That is deliberate, and it is how you extract a few pages and discard the rest.
- Ranges are inclusive at both ends, so 1-3 gives you three pages, not two.
- Splitting never re-encodes anything. Text stays selectable and images keep the resolution they had in the original.
- To take a handful of pages out of one document instead of producing many files, Delete Pages from PDF is quicker.
- The ZIP downloads to wherever your browser normally saves files. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no link to share and nothing to delete afterwards.
Questions, answered
How splitting works, what comes out, and where your file goes.
Open your PDF, choose whether to split every page, use custom ranges like 1-3, 4-8, or cut in fixed chunks, then press Split PDF. Each part is built as its own document and they arrive together in one ZIP.
Related tools
Other things you can do here without signing up.