How to Split a PDF into Multiple Files

To split a PDF into multiple files, open the PDF Splitter, drop in your PDF, and choose either Each page as separate PDF or Split into multiple PDFs with page groups like 1-4,5-8. Click Split PDF, then Download ZIP to get all the parts at once. Everything runs in your browser. If you only want a few specific pages in a single new file, that's extraction rather than splitting, and our guide on how to extract pages from a PDF covers it.

Choose the right split mode

The PDF Splitter has a Split mode menu with three options. Two of them produce multiple files:

The menu opens on Extract pages to one PDF with page 1 pre-filled, so remember to switch modes before you split.

How to split a PDF step by step

1. Add your PDF. Drop it onto Drop a PDF to split, or click to choose a file. One PDF at a time, up to 50 MB.
2. Pick a split mode. Choose Each page as separate PDF to burst the whole document, or Split into multiple PDFs to cut it into sections.
3. Enter your groups (multi-PDF mode only). In the Pages (1-based) box, type ranges separated by commas. Each comma starts a new output file, so 1-2,3-5 makes two PDFs. Page numbers start at 1, matching what your PDF viewer shows.
4. Split. Click Split PDF. A Split complete panel shows the number of Source pages and Output file(s).
5. Download. When there's more than one output file, the button reads Download ZIP and saves everything in a single ZIP archive. Click Reset to start again.

Worked example: course notes into chapters

You have course-notes.pdf, 12 pages long, with three chapters of four pages each.

Splitting into chapters. Choose Split into multiple PDFs and enter 1-4,5-8,9-12. After you click Split PDF, the panel reads Source pages: 12 and Output file(s): 3. Download ZIP saves course-notes-split.zip, which contains:

• course-notes-part-1.pdf (pages 1 to 4)
• course-notes-part-2.pdf (pages 5 to 8)
• course-notes-part-3.pdf (pages 9 to 12)

Splitting every page. Choose Each page as separate PDF instead. There's no page box in this mode. The panel shows Output file(s): 12, and the ZIP contains course-notes-page-1.pdf through course-notes-page-12.pdf.

Uneven sections. Groups don't have to be the same size. 1-2,3-9,10-12 gives a 2-page intro, a 7-page main section, and a 3-page appendix: three files totalling 12 pages (2 + 7 + 3).

How page groups work

A few rules from the tool's behaviour are worth knowing:

• A single number is its own file. 1,2-12 produces two files: page 1 alone, then pages 2 to 12.
• Pages inside a group are kept in ascending order. You can't reverse pages within a group.
• Pages you don't mention are left out. 1-4,9-12 creates two files and skips pages 5 to 8.
• Groups can overlap. 1-5,5-10 includes page 5 in both files.
• Out-of-range pages stop the split. If the PDF has 12 pages and you type 13, you'll see "Page 13 is out of range. This PDF has 12 page(s)."

Tips

• Split, then recombine. To reorder sections, split into groups, then put the parts back together in a new order with Merge PDF. The merge guide shows how to set the file order.
• Beat upload limits. If a portal caps uploads at a certain size, split the PDF into sections and upload them separately. Run any part that's still too big through the PDF Compressor.
• Splitting scanned batches. If you scanned several documents into one PDF, split by where each document starts, for example 1-3,4-4,5-9.

Troubleshooting

"Could not read this PDF. It may be corrupted or password-protected." The splitter can't open the file. Check that it opens in a normal PDF viewer. For password-protected files, save an unlocked copy in an app that knows the password, if you're allowed to, and split that.

Blank or garbled pages in the output. Some encrypted PDFs load without an error but produce unreadable pages. Unlock the original and split again.

"Invalid page range". Ranges must run low to high (3-5, not 5-3) and use whole numbers. Use a plain hyphen between numbers and commas between groups.

The file isn't added. PDFs over 50 MB, empty files, and non-PDFs are skipped.

Slow on a phone. Each-page mode builds one PDF per page, so a 300-page file creates 300 PDFs in memory, plus a ZIP. Use groups instead, or split on a computer.

Other ways to split a PDF

• macOS Preview. You can drag page thumbnails from the sidebar to the desktop to create single-page PDFs, which works well for a handful of pages.
• Windows "Microsoft Print to PDF". Print the PDF and enter a page range in the print dialog to save that range as a new file. It works for one range at a time, and printing can flatten links and form fields.
• Chrome. Open the PDF in Chrome, choose Print, set the destination to Save as PDF, and enter custom pages. Same one-range-at-a-time limitation.
• Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat can split by page count, file size, or top-level bookmarks automatically, which is useful for very long documents. It's paid, and Adobe's free online splitter uploads your file.

Privacy

The PDF Splitter uses pdf-lib in your browser. Your PDF is read from your device, split in memory, and the parts are zipped and downloaded locally. Nothing is uploaded to Toolstik servers.

For every PDF tool in one place, see the best free PDF tools online.