Guides · Updated August 2026
How to Split a PDF into Separate Files
You rarely need a whole PDF. The recipient needs pages 4 to 7 of the agreement, the portal wants each certificate as its own file, the email server wants attachments under 10 MB. Splitting is how a 60-page scan becomes exactly the documents each situation needs.
The method below runs in your browser — relevant here because the PDFs people split are usually the sensitive kind, and because it means the page count doesn't cost anything: splitting a 300-page file is as free as splitting a 3-page one.
Step by step
- Open the split tool and choose your PDF. Note the page count it reports — that's your valid range.
- Decide between two modes: page ranges (you specify exactly which pages form each output file) or every-N-pages (the file is cut into equal chunks automatically).
- For ranges, use the syntax 1-3, 5, 8-10 — each comma-separated group becomes its own PDF. So that example produces three files: pages 1–3, page 5 alone, and pages 8–10.
- Run the split and review the parts list — each shows its size before you download.
- Download parts individually, or take the ZIP if there are many.
Tips that save a retry
- To turn every page into its own file, use every-N-pages mode with N = 1.
- Ranges can overlap — '1-5, 3-8' is valid and gives you two files that share pages 3 to 5.
- If you want to choose pages by looking at them rather than by number, use the visual organizer instead and extract a selection.
Questions
Does splitting reduce quality or break links?
Pages are copied unchanged, so quality is identical. Links that point to pages left out of a part will no longer have a destination in that file.
Can I split a scanned PDF?
Yes — splitting works on any PDF since it operates on whole pages, scanned or digital.