How to Split a PDF: Extract or Remove Pages

Quick answer: To split a PDF, open it in a split tool, type the pages you want to keep or remove, and save the result as a new file. You can also save every page as its own PDF. The free Split PDF tool does all three in your browser, so the document is never uploaded.

Why split a PDF

Large PDFs often contain more than the recipient needs. Splitting lets you share only the relevant pages, drop pages that contain private details, and fix scans that came out in the wrong order.

• Send pages 4 to 6 of a contract instead of all 40 pages
• Delete blank pages that a scanner added
• Turn a combined scan into one file per document

Under ISO 32000, the standard that defines PDF, each page is a separate object, so pages can be copied into a new document without re-rendering them. Text stays selectable and the quality does not change.

How to use the free Split PDF tool

1. Drag one PDF onto the box labeled Drop a PDF here, or click it to choose the file. The tool shows the file name and its page count.
2. Under What do you want to do? choose one option: Extract or reorder pages into one PDF, Remove pages or Split every page into its own PDF.
3. For extract or remove, type the pages in the Pages (in the order you want them) field. For extract the field starts as the full range, such as 1-12; for remove it starts empty. The field is hidden when you split every page.
4. Click Split PDF.
5. Click Download. Extract gives name-pages.pdf, remove gives name-edited.pdf, and split every page gives name-page-1.pdf, name-page-2.pdf and so on, plus a Download all as ZIP button.

The PDF is read and rebuilt in your browser with the pdf-lib library. Nothing is sent to a server.

How to write page ranges

Separate entries with commas. Each entry is a single page or a range with a hyphen. The word end means the last page.

In extract mode the order you type is the order of the new file, so the same field both selects and reorders. A page can be listed twice if you want it duplicated. In remove mode the listed pages are dropped and the rest keep their original order.

Worked example: a 12-page scan

You have scan.pdf with 12 pages. Pages 2 and 9 are blank, and you need to send the remaining pages to an office.

1. Choose Remove pages.
2. Type 2, 9.
3. Click Split PDF.

The result is scan-edited.pdf with 10 pages. If the office only wants pages 1, 3 and 4 with page 4 first, choose Extract or reorder pages into one PDF and type 4, 1, 3. The result is scan-pages.pdf with 3 pages in that order.

Common mistakes

• Using Extract when you meant Remove. Typing 2, 9 in extract mode gives a 2-page file containing only the pages you wanted to delete. Check the mode before splitting.
• Typing a page that does not exist. If the PDF has 12 pages, 13 fails and the tool tells you how many pages the file has.
• Removing every page. The tool stops with a message instead of producing an empty file.
• Using words or spaces inside ranges. Only numbers, hyphens, commas and end are accepted. Forms such as pages 1 to 3 are rejected.
• Splitting a protected PDF. Password-protected files cannot be read. Remove the password first.

When to choose each mode

• Extract or reorder: you know which pages you want, or the pages are in the wrong order.
• Remove pages: you want almost everything except a few pages.
• Split every page: each page is a separate document, such as a batch of scanned receipts.

Before you send the new file, open it and check the page count and the first and last pages. The output keeps the page content but is a new document, so bookmarks and document properties from the original are not carried over.

To join pieces back together later, use a merge tool and set the order there. Splitting and merging together let you rebuild a document from parts of several files: extract the pages you need from each file, then merge the extracts in the order you want.