Someone sends you a 40-page PDF — a contract, a report, a set of instructions — and you only need pages 3 through 7. Or you have a large scanned document you need to split between different people.
That's what the split tool is for.
Two ways to split
You can split by page range or into individual pages. Page ranges let you type something like "1-3, 5, 8-12" and the tool creates a separate PDF for each range. Individual pages splits every single page into its own file.
Most people need page ranges. Individual pages is useful when you're dealing with a large scanned document and want to sort through each page as a separate file.
How to do it
Go to pdfmerger.io/split. Upload your PDF. Enter the page ranges you want to extract, or select "split into individual pages." Click Split PDF.
Each range downloads as a separate PDF. If you're splitting into individual pages, they come as a ZIP file — one PDF per page.
Page numbering can be confusing
The page numbers printed on a document's pages aren't always the same as the actual page numbers in the file. A 20-page document might have Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv) for the first four pages, then Arabic numerals starting at 1. The split tool counts from the beginning of the file — page 1 is always the first physical page, regardless of what's printed on it.
If you're not sure which pages you need, scroll through the document first and count from page one.
Password-protected PDFs
The tool will prompt you to enter the password if the PDF is locked. If you don't know the password, it won't be able to access the content — there's no bypass. If you know the password but don't want to keep entering it, use the unlock tool first to create an unrestricted copy, then split that.
Quality after splitting
Nothing changes. Pages are pulled directly from the PDF without re-encoding. Text is still text, images are still images, vector graphics remain vector. The extracted pages are identical to the originals.
Removing a cover page or a few blank pages?
If you just want to delete a page or two rather than extract a specific range, the remove-pages tool is faster. It shows thumbnails of every page and lets you click the ones you want to delete.
What if you need to merge pieces afterward?
No problem. Split your document into sections, reorganize however you need, then use the merge tool to put pieces back together. Nothing is stored on any server either way, so you can run multiple operations in the same session.