Split PDF

The page range field accepts comma-separated ranges and single pages, using a dash for inclusive ranges. Examples that work: 1-5, 7, 9-12 (three output files: pages 1-5, page 7 alone, pages 9-12). You can also use 'end' as a shorthand for the last page: 50-end produces a file containing everything from page 50 onward. Whitespace is ignored, so 1 - 5, 7 is the same as 1-5,7. Ranges cannot overlap inside a single field — each comma starts a new output file. If you make a typo or reference a page beyond the document length, the tool highlights the invalid range in red and disables the Split button until you fix it. Page numbers are 1-indexed (the first page is page 1), matching how PDF readers display them.

Fixed chunk size splits the document into equal-size pieces — set the chunk to 10 and a 95-page PDF becomes ten files: nine of 10 pages and a final file of 5 pages. It is the fastest way to split a long document into uniform parts without typing ranges by hand. Page ranges mode is for when you need specific sections (chapters, exhibits, signed pages) at irregular boundaries. If you set chunk size to 1, the result is identical to choosing Every page mode, which produces one file per page. Use fixed chunks for things like splitting a 500-page export to fit a 25-page-per-file email limit. Use ranges when the breakpoints follow the document's own structure rather than arithmetic.

Internal links that point inside the same output file are preserved. Links that pointed to a page now living in a different output file become dead — there is no way to keep a cross-file link working without rewriting the destination, which the tool does not attempt. Bookmarks (the outline tree) are dropped from the output files, since a bookmark referencing page 30 has no meaning in a file that only contains pages 1-10. Form fields stay attached to their pages but lose the parent AcroForm definition, which means filled values still display but new edits in some viewers may behave oddly. For maximum reliability with forms, run Flatten PDF first, then split — the values become permanent and survive any further editing.

Thumbnails are rendered live by the in-browser PDF renderer at a low resolution to keep memory manageable. A 500-page PDF can take 10-30 seconds to render the entire preview grid on a typical laptop, longer on phones. The blurriness is intentional — full-resolution thumbnails for hundreds of pages would consume gigabytes of RAM. If thumbnails are critical to choosing the right split, work in smaller batches by extracting a section first with the Extract PDF pages tool, then split that subset. If the page count is huge and thumbnails are unnecessary, use the page-range or chunk-size modes without scrolling through previews — the split itself does not depend on thumbnails being fully rendered.

Not directly. PDFs with an open password (also called user password) must be decrypted before an in-browser PDF engine can copy pages out of them. Use the Remove PDF password tool first, supply the password you know, save the unlocked copy, then load that copy into Split PDF. If the PDF only has an owner password (limiting printing or editing but allowing opening), it depends on the viewer — the in-browser PDF renderer will load it for thumbnails, but an in-browser PDF engine may still refuse to copy pages. The safest workflow is always to decrypt explicitly with a known password before splitting. The tool processes everything locally, so even after you decrypt and split, no copy of your password or document ever touches a server.

The combined size of all output files is usually a few percent larger than the original because each new PDF needs its own copy of fonts, image resources, and metadata that the original shared across pages. Splitting a 10 MB book into ten chapter files might produce 11 MB total across the chapters. That overhead is per-file and small, but it adds up if you split into many tiny files. If size matters, run each output through Compress PDF afterward. Splitting is the right tool when you need separate files for distribution, archiving, or attachment-size limits — it is not a size-reduction tool by itself, despite the common assumption that 'smaller files = less data.'