Skip to content
ToolStash
Menu

Split PDF

Pull a page range out of a PDF, break a long document into chunks, or save every page as its own file. The split happens in your browser, so the document is never uploaded and the pages keep their original quality.

Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded

Drop a PDF here to split it

One file at a time. Nothing is uploaded.

How to use it

  1. Drop a PDF onto the box above, or click Choose a file.
  2. Pick a mode:
    • Extract pages — one new PDF containing the pages you list.
    • Split into ranges — one PDF per comma-separated group.
    • Split every N pages — equal chunks, with a shorter last one if it does not divide evenly.
    • Split every page — one PDF per page.
  3. Enter your pages or set the chunk size. The button tells you how many files you will get.
  4. Click it, then download each file from the list.

How it works

A PDF keeps its pages as separate numbered objects, with a page tree listing them in order. Splitting does not need to understand or redraw anything — it needs to create a new document and copy the page objects you want into it, then write a new tree. That is what happens here, using the pdf-lib library running in your browser.

Because pages are copied rather than rendered and re-encoded, nothing degrades. It is also why splitting is fast: the work scales with the size of the pages you asked for, not with how complex they look.

The tool works out its plan before it parses anything. Your page selection is validated against the document’s actual page count first, so an out-of-range page or a typo like 1- is reported immediately with the specific problem, and the number of output files is known before any work starts. That number is what drives the warning when a mode would produce more files than is comfortable to click through.

The source document is parsed once and copied from repeatedly, rather than re-read for each output — splitting into twenty parts therefore costs one parse, not twenty.

Tips

  • Extracting a signature page or a single invoice from a long scan is the most common job here, and Extract pages with a single number is the quickest route to it.
  • If you are splitting to get under an email attachment limit, check the sizes in the results list — a scanned document is rarely evenly distributed, and one image-heavy section can dominate. Compressing first with Compress PDF is often more effective than splitting.
  • To rearrange or drop pages rather than separate them, use Rotate & Reorder PDF Pages. To put documents back together, use Merge PDF.
  • Check a part in the PDF Viewer before sending it. Confirming you extracted the pages you meant to takes a few seconds.

Frequently asked questions

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The file is read into your browser’s memory, the new documents are assembled by JavaScript running in this tab, and each one is written out as a download. Nothing is transmitted. Open the Network tab while you split a file and you will see no requests carrying your document.
Why does each file have its own download button instead of one zip?
Because it is the approach that works reliably in every browser without adding a zip library. Browsers deliberately block bursts of automatic downloads — Chrome allows the first and silently blocks the rest unless each is tied to a click — so a "download all" button would work for some people and quietly fail for others. A button per file makes each download its own click, which always works. It also suits the common cases: extracting one range gives one file, and splitting into a few chunks gives a handful. If you find yourself splitting into dozens of files regularly, use a larger chunk size or ranges instead.
Does splitting reduce quality or add a watermark?
Neither. Pages are copied at the object level rather than re-rendered, so text stays selectable and searchable, vector graphics stay sharp, and images are not re-compressed. Nothing is stamped on the output. Each part is roughly proportional in size to the pages it contains, though shared resources such as an embedded font are copied into every file that needs them, so the parts can add up to slightly more than the original.
What is the difference between "Extract pages" and "Split into ranges"?
Extract puts everything you list into one file — 1-3, 8-10 gives a single six-page PDF. Split into ranges gives you one file per group — the same 1-3, 8-10 produces two PDFs, one of three pages and one of three pages. Use Extract when you want a subset of a document; use ranges when you are breaking a document into sections.
Can I extract pages that are not next to each other?
Yes. Mix single pages and ranges freely — 1, 4, 7-9, 12 is valid. In Extract mode they are combined into one document in page order. Duplicates are ignored, and a reversed range like 7-3 is read as 3-7 rather than reversing the page order, since that is nearly always a typo.
Is there a limit on file size or page count?
No limit we impose. Reading the document only parses its page list, so page count barely matters up front. The constraint is memory: every output is held in this tab until you download it, so splitting a 200 MB scan into fifty parts asks a lot of a browser. The tool warns above 100 MB, and if a large job fails, split it in two passes.
Why is my password-protected PDF rejected?
Copying pages requires decrypting them, and this tool does not attempt to bypass encryption. Open the file in your PDF reader with the password, save an unprotected copy, then split that. Files that only restrict printing or editing, rather than requiring a password to open, usually work.
Do bookmarks and form fields survive the split?
Page content always does — text, images, vector art. Interactive layers largely do not: bookmarks and internal links reference page objects that are replaced by copies, and form fields may lose interactivity. This is a limitation of copying pages between documents rather than something specific to this tool. Document metadata is deliberately not carried over, so an author name or internal file path in the original does not leak into the parts.
How are the output files named?
From your original filename plus what the part contains — report-pages-1-3.pdf, report-page-7.pdf. A non-contiguous selection cannot be described as a range, so it is named by how many pages it holds. Everything lands in your normal downloads folder.

Related tools

Merge PDF

Combine several PDFs into one file and drag the pages into the order you want before merging.

Rotate & Reorder PDF Pages

Rotate individual pages or drag them into a new order, then export the fixed PDF.

PDF to Image

Export each page of a PDF as a JPG or PNG image file.

Compress PDF

Shrink a PDF by re-encoding the images inside it, with a quality setting you control.

Browse every tool in PDF Tools.

Found a bug or want a feature? Tell us — ToolStash is built from user requests.