If I split after page 3, which file has page 3 in it?

The first one. The number you write is the last page of the part that ends there, so 3 gives you a file of pages 1 to 3 and a file of page 4 onwards. Write 2 if you wanted page 3 to open the second file.

How do I split a 300-page scan into files of ten pages?

Leave the page numbers alone and set ‘split every N pages’ to 10. You get 30 files numbered -1 to -30 in one zip; if the count does not divide evenly the last file is the short one.

Why did I get three files when I asked for two cuts?

Because a cut is a boundary, not a file. Two boundaries divide a document into three pieces, and the last piece runs to the end without ever being typed into the box.

Can I get one file per page?

Set ‘every N pages’ to 1. A 40-page document comes back as 40 single-page PDFs in one zip, numbered in page order. For a few specific pages rather than all of them, extract pages is less work.

Do the parts keep the bookmarks?

No. Each part is built as a new document from copied pages, and the original outline points at pages that are no longer in it. If your document marks its chapters with bookmarks, split by bookmarks instead and each part is named after its chapter.

Split a PDF at the page numbers you choose

Two ways of saying the same thing, because people arrive with either sentence in their head. Either you name the pages to cut after — 3,7 gives three files: pages 1-3, 4-7 and the rest — or you set a number of pages per file and it cuts every that many. Pages are copied rather than redrawn, so nothing changes size or quality, and the parts come back in one zip named after the original.

Each part is a new document, so bookmarks are not carried over and a form’s field definitions are left behind. Split by bookmarks is the tool that keeps chapters and names the parts after them.

Split this PDF

No account. Your upload is deleted after 2 hours, the result after 24 hours.

Choose file

Loading Split PDF by pages…

How it works

Upload the document. One PDF of at least two pages. A single page is refused rather than returned as a zip containing itself.
Say where the cuts go. Write the pages to split after, or set ‘every N pages’ instead and leave the numbers alone. The number you write is the last page of a part, not the first page of the next one.
Download the zip. The parts arrive numbered in document order — your-file-1.pdf, your-file-2.pdf and so on. Two cuts make three files; it is the last piece, the one you never typed, that catches people out.

What the options do

The form above lists the options this tool is running today, straight from the server. This is what they are for.

Split after these pages: The last page of each part. In a twelve-page document, 3,7 gives you pages 1-3, pages 4-7 and pages 8-12 — three files from two numbers. It reads the same page syntax as the rest of the site, so 5,10,15 works and a number bigger than the document is refused with the real page count. Splitting after the last page would make an empty file, so it is ignored and the result says so.
Or split every N pages: Fixed-length parts, for a batch print where every document is the same length. Set 10 and a 95-page file comes back as ten parts: nine of ten pages and a last one of five. Set 1 and you get one file per page. Leave it at 0 to use the page numbers above — anything else here wins over them.

What this tool does not do

Each part is a new document, so bookmarks are not carried over and a form’s field definitions are left behind. Split by bookmarks is the tool that keeps chapters and names the parts after them.
The parts add up to more than the original. A font or a logo used throughout has to be written into every part that uses it.
It cannot split on what a page says or on file size. Those are split by text and split by size.
A one-page document is refused. There is nothing to split off it.
Parts are numbered, not named. Nothing about the contents decides what a file is called.

What happens to your file

The file is uploaded because Split PDF by pages runs on our server rather than in the browser tab. It is kept for at most 2 hours and the result you download for 24 hours, then a scheduled job deletes both — a job has to be able to read the file while it runs, and you have to be able to retry a failed conversion without re-uploading. Neither needs longer.

Nothing about the contents is logged, and no one reads your documents. The retention page lists the same numbers the code enforces, and the privacy policy says who can reach the storage they sit in.

Questions

If I split after page 3, which file has page 3 in it?: The first one. The number you write is the last page of the part that ends there, so 3 gives you a file of pages 1 to 3 and a file of page 4 onwards. Write 2 if you wanted page 3 to open the second file.
How do I split a 300-page scan into files of ten pages?: Leave the page numbers alone and set ‘split every N pages’ to 10. You get 30 files numbered -1 to -30 in one zip; if the count does not divide evenly the last file is the short one.
Why did I get three files when I asked for two cuts?: Because a cut is a boundary, not a file. Two boundaries divide a document into three pieces, and the last piece runs to the end without ever being typed into the box.
Can I get one file per page?: Set ‘every N pages’ to 1. A 40-page document comes back as 40 single-page PDFs in one zip, numbered in page order. For a few specific pages rather than all of them, extract pages is less work.
Do the parts keep the bookmarks?: No. Each part is built as a new document from copied pages, and the original outline points at pages that are no longer in it. If your document marks its chapters with bookmarks, split by bookmarks instead and each part is named after its chapter.

Guides that use this tool

Written for the problem rather than the tool: what is actually going wrong, and what to do about it whether or not you end up here.

Split a PDF that is too big to even open — The usual advice is to compress it first, but nothing can compress a document it cannot render. Here is the order to use when nothing will load it at all.
Split a payslip print run into one file each — A 400-page export where an employee spans two sheets defeats any tool cutting every N pages. Match on the words instead, and name the outputs as you go.
Fewer files than bookmarks? Here’s what happened. — You split by bookmarks and got six files from twenty bookmarks. The tool did what you asked — the outline just does not mean what it looks like it means.
“Split a PDF in half” means two different things — Half the document, or half of every sheet? They need opposite tools, and picking the wrong one wastes an afternoon. Here is how to tell which one you meant.

Split PDF in half — Cut a document into two halves. An odd page count puts the extra page in the first half, and the result says so.
Split PDF by size — Split a document into parts no larger than a size you choose — for an email attachment limit or an upload cap.
Split PDF by bookmarks — Split at the document’s own bookmarks, naming each part after its bookmark.
Split PDF by text — Start a new file at every page containing a phrase — “Invoice”, “Statement of account”, a customer number.
Extract PDF pages — Pull a page range out into a new document, leaving the original alone.
To change the words on the page rather than the pages themselves, use the PDF editor.

Put documents together

Take documents apart

Make a file smaller or a scan straighter

Get the contents out of a PDF

Make a PDF out of something else

Fix how the pages sit on the paper

Put something on every page

Control what can be done with the file

Tidy up the document itself