How to Split a PDF (2026)
How to split a PDF and keep what matters: our splitter kept the title, author, surviving bookmarks and working internal links when we extracted three pages. One surprise: six single-page parts of a 25 KB file added up to 4.97 times the original size.
Split, Extract or Reorder
Splitting turns one PDF into several, extracting copies chosen pages into a new file, and reordering changes the sequence inside one file. Our PDF Splitter covers the first two: type ranges such as 1-3, 5, 8- to pull out pages, or split into files of N pages each. To rearrange pages, use a page organizer instead.
What a Good Split Keeps
Pages are copied, not re-rendered, so text, images and vector graphics come out exactly as they were. The parts that usually go missing are the document-level extras. We extracted pages 2 to 4 from a six-page test file with bookmarks and links, in Chromium through the real tool, and checked the result with pypdf and qpdf:
| Checked | Result |
|---|---|
| Pages | 3 |
| Title, author, subject | kept (Quarterly report, Ann Example) |
| Bookmarks | only those whose pages survive, renumbered: Part A -> p1, A.1 -> p2, A.2 -> p3 |
| Internal links | pointed at the copied page when its target was included, removed when it was not |
| qpdf structure check | no errors |
Splitting Does Not Shrink the Total
Shared resources travel with every part. We split a six-page, 25.1 KB document that uses an embedded font into six single-page files: each came out at about 20.8 KB, 124.8 KB in total, 4.97 times the original, because every file carries its own copy of the font. Split to send or share part of a document, and compress the parts if size matters; our PDF size guide shows where the bytes go.
Common Cases
- Chapters or sections: type one range per part, or use "files of N pages" for even chunks.
- One page from a long file: extract it; the bookmark and links for that page come along.
- A scanned batch of separate documents: split at the page where each document starts.
- Password-protected files: a file that needs a password to open is refused with a message; remove the password first if you have the right to.