Split PDF

How to split a PDF

1. Drop your PDF onto the upload area or click to browse.
2. Enter the page range you want to extract, for example, "1-3, 5, 7-9".
3. Click "Extract pages" to generate a new PDF containing only those pages; the other pages' text, images, and form values are not in it.
4. Download the extracted PDF.

Common uses

• Extracting specific pages from a large report to share only the relevant sections, then merge PDFs to combine the extracted parts with other documents
• Removing pages you do not need before sharing a document
• Splitting a scanned document into chapters or single pages, one run per output file. Use PDF to image to convert individual pages to JPG or PNG

Technical specification

• Algorithm or formula: Parses the page-range string into a sorted, deduplicated set of 1-based page indexes. pdf-lib copies the selected pages into a fresh PDFDocument in their original order. References to pages left out (a table-of-contents link, a form field spanning pages, a shared resource dictionary) are cut, so their content is not carried along, and the result is saved with only the objects it uses.
• Browser API or library: pdf-lib for PDF write; PDF.js (with its worker) for the page previews; standard File and Blob APIs for input and download.
• Input limits: PDF up to 100 MB. Page-range syntax accepts single numbers, dash ranges, and comma separators (e.g., 1, 3-5, 8).
• Output: One new PDF (application/pdf) per run, containing only the selected pages (or, on the remove-pages page, the pages not listed), downloaded via Blob URL. Links between included pages keep working, and hidden layers stay hidden. The file has empty document properties and a new random file ID; comment authors and dates, page-level XMP, and application data are removed.
• Known limitations: Links to pages not in the output are removed. Bookmarks are not carried over. Form fields keep their values, but the new file has no document-level form, so viewers may no longer let you fill them in. On the included pages, comment text, form values, attachments, and hidden-layer content stay in the file. In the rare case that included and left-out pages share one resource dictionary and an included page's content cannot be decoded, images and fonts only the left-out pages used stay in that dictionary, unseen but readable by a PDF inspection tool.

Frequently asked questions

How do I specify which pages to split out of a PDF?

Enter page numbers and ranges separated by commas, for example '1-3, 5, 7-9' extracts pages 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9 into a new PDF. To list the pages to take out instead, use the Remove pages from PDF page. All processing runs in your browser using pdf-lib.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

All processing is done in your browser using pdf-lib. Our servers are not involved at any point.

Can I split a PDF into individual pages?

Each run makes one PDF with the pages you enter. To get each page as its own file, extract one page number at a time.

Can I remove specific pages instead of extracting them?

Yes. Use the Remove pages from PDF page, where the numbers you enter are the pages taken out. The tool produces a PDF with those pages removed.

Is there a page count limit?

There is no hard limit. The tool processes entirely in browser memory. Very large PDFs may take a few seconds to load and process.