How to split a PDF

Open the PDF Toolkit, choose "Split by range", and type the ranges you want as a comma-separated list: 1-3, 4-8, 9- produces three files. Each comma-separated part becomes its own document, in the order you typed them.

Ranges are 1-based and inclusive, the same convention a print dialog uses. An open-ended range is allowed on either side: 5- means page five to the end, and -4 means the start to page four.

Last reviewed: 2026-09-19. Checked against the tool’s own source on that date.

Split or extract? They are different operations

Splitting produces SEVERAL documents — one per comma-separated part. Extracting produces ONE document containing only the pages you named. People reach for "split" when they want "extract" more often than the other way round, and then have to merge the pieces back together.

If you want pages 2, 5 and 9 pulled out into a single new file, that is extraction. If you want a 30-page report cut into three chapters, that is splitting.

The range syntax, exactly

Malformed input is refused with a message naming the part that failed, rather than being quietly discarded. Typing "abc" or "5-2" gets you an explanation, not an empty file — an earlier generation of browser PDF tools was notorious for producing a successful-looking zero-page result from a parse failure.

Out-of-bounds pages are refused too. Asking for 1-50 in a 30-page document is an error, not a silent truncation to 1-30, because those two outcomes are not the same and only you know which you meant.

  • 3 — a single page.
  • 1-5 — a span, inclusive of both ends.
  • 2- — page 2 to the last page.
  • -4 — the first page to page 4.
  • 1-3, 7, 9- — three parts, so three output files.

What the output files look like

Each part is written as an independent PDF by copying the page objects out of the source. Text stays selectable, images are not re-compressed, and page dimensions and rotation are preserved.

The parts are numbered in the order you listed them, not in page order, so 9-, 1-3 gives you part 1 containing page 9 onwards. Listing ranges in the order you want the files is easier than renaming afterwards.

Worked example: splitting a 30-page report into three chapters

A 30-page report has its chapters starting on pages 1, 11 and 22. You want one file per chapter.

  1. Open the PDF Toolkit and select "Split by range".
  2. Enter: 1-10, 11-21, 22-
  3. Split, then download the three files.

Result: Three PDFs of 10, 11 and 9 pages. Together they contain every page of the original exactly once, and every page is byte-for-byte the same content as the page it came from.

Open the tool

Split a PDF in the PDF Toolkit

Produces one file per range. If you want a single file containing selected pages, use extraction instead.

What this does not cover

  • Splitting never reduces total size. Three parts of a 4 MB report still hold 4 MB of page content between them, plus a little PDF structure each.
  • A page cannot be divided in half. A page goes wholly into one part; there is no sub-page cutting.
  • Encrypted PDFs are reported rather than opened.
  • Bookmarks and document-level structure are not carried into the parts.