Split PDF
Separate one page or a whole set for easy conversion. 100% in your browser — files never leave your device.
Select a PDF
or drop a PDF here
Your file is ready
Processed entirely in your browser — the file never left your device.
How to split a PDF
Choose a mode, download a ZIP of the parts.
Select a PDF
Read locally.
Choose split mode
Ranges, every N, or each page.
Download ZIP
split-1.pdf, split-2.pdf…
What is "split PDF"?
Splitting a PDF means breaking one document into smaller pieces — by page range, by a fixed page count, or by extracting every page into a separate file. People most often split PDFs when only a section of a long document is relevant to a recipient. A 200-page annual report becomes a 12-page financial summary you can email. A 40-page contract becomes a 2-page signature page that goes to legal. A multi-tab bank statement becomes one PDF per month, ready to file.
Why split instead of just sharing the whole thing? Smaller PDFs are easier to email, faster to load on phones, and respect attention. They also make it possible to share only the pages someone needs to see — a useful privacy practice when the rest of the document contains personal data, salaries, or commercial terms unrelated to the request.
How split PDF works in your browser
When you drop a PDF onto this page, your browser reads it into memory with the standard File API. There is no upload — you can verify that in the Network tab of your devtools. The tool then opens the file with pdf-lib, a pure JavaScript PDF library, and copies the requested pages into new PDF documents. Each new document is serialised back to bytes and added to a ZIP archive built with JSZip.
Page rendering for the upload preview and page count uses Mozilla's PDF.js, which parses PDF structure locally with help from WebAssembly for the expensive decoding paths. Splitting is fundamentally a copy operation — pages are not re-rendered, so fonts, vector art, images, and form widgets are preserved exactly. When you close the tab, both the original PDF and the split outputs disappear from memory.
Common use cases
- Extracting a contract signature page. Pull just the last few pages of a long agreement to send back to the other party, without re-sending the entire contract.
- Filing scanned bank statements. Split a year-end PDF into one file per month for easy accounting and archiving.
- Sharing a single chapter. Give a student or a colleague only the chapter or section that is relevant, not the full textbook or report.
- Submitting tax documents. Many tax portals require each form as a separate PDF. Use "every N pages" or ranges to break a combined PDF into the parts the portal expects.
- Splitting scanned multi-document batches. When a scanner has dumped everything into one PDF, use ranges to separate the receipts, invoices, and IDs that were stacked on the platen.
Privacy & security
Splitting a PDF often means handling its most sensitive part — a signed contract page, a tax form, a medical letter. The typical online split tool uploads your PDF to a server, splits it there, and you trust that the original and the parts are eventually deleted. imisspdf removes that risk entirely: the split runs inside your browser using pdf-lib and JSZip, and no file is uploaded. See our iLovePDF privacy review or the imisspdf vs iLovePDF comparison for the architectural details.
Frequently asked questions
No. The PDF you select is read into your browser via the standard File API and split locally using pdf-lib. Nothing is sent to imisspdf or any third-party server. You can confirm by watching the Network tab while you split — there is no upload request, and the page works offline.
Comma-separated ranges or individual pages, in any order. For example: "1-3, 5, 8-10" creates three PDFs — pages 1-3, page 5 alone, and pages 8-10. Whitespace is ignored. If a range exceeds the PDF's page count, that range is skipped with a notice rather than failing the whole job.
Browsers limit how many files a single page can offer for download. Bundling the split parts into one ZIP gives you all of them in a single, predictable download. Unzip on your desktop the same way as any other archive — there is no special imisspdf format.
Not while it is still encrypted. pdf-lib needs to read the page tree, which is blocked by the open password. Run the file through Unlock PDF first (with permission to remove the password), then split the unlocked copy.
iLovePDF and Smallpdf upload your PDF, split it on their server, then send the parts back. imisspdf does the same split locally in your tab using pdf-lib and JSZip. The trade-off: very large jobs depend on your device memory, but in exchange you get no upload, no daily limit, no signup, and no retention window.
Tips for best results
- Use ranges to label the output. Splitting a 20-page report as "1-5, 6-12, 13-20" gives you three meaningful files (summary, body, appendix) you can rename quickly.
- Use "every N pages" for batches. If you have a scanned booklet of 60 pages that are 4 pages per chapter, set "Split every 4" to get 15 chapter PDFs in one click.
- Use "extract every page" only when you really need it. One PDF per page is great for filing single-page documents (receipts, forms) but produces a noisy ZIP for long reports.
- Unlock first if needed. Encrypted PDFs cannot be split until the open password is removed via Unlock PDF.
- Compress large outputs. If the split parts will be emailed, run Compress PDF on the largest pieces before sending — especially for scanned content.
Related PDF tools
- Merge PDF — the inverse: combine multiple PDFs into one.
- Extract Pages — pull a single set of pages into one new PDF.
- Organize PDF — drag, rotate, and delete pages without splitting.
- Unlock PDF — remove an open password so a PDF can be split.