Split PDF files online
Break a PDF into multiple files — by custom ranges, every N pages, or one file per page. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored.
Hover between any two pages and click the scissors to split there. Or use a quick action above.
Last file may have fewer pages if the total is not divisible.
Click page numbers to toggle them on or off — gaps are fine. Drag across the strip to select a contiguous range, or type into From / To for quick keyboard entry. Each range becomes a separate PDF inside a ZIP. Pages not covered by any range are discarded. Ranges may overlap.
Every page becomes a separate PDF inside a ZIP.
How to split a PDF online
Splitting a PDF with PDFluna takes under a minute and runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to install and no account to create, and your file is never sent to a server. Here is the full process:
- Upload your PDF. Drag and drop a PDF onto the upload area or click Choose file. Files up to 100 MB are supported.
- Choose a split mode. Pick one of four modes: custom ranges (click between pages), every N pages, extract specific ranges (discard the rest), or extract each page as its own file.
- Configure your split. For custom ranges click between pages to place a cut. For every-N mode, pick a chunk size. For extract-ranges, add one or more From/To pairs — each becomes a separate PDF and pages outside every range are discarded. The thumbnail grid colour-codes each output so you can preview the result live.
- Review the live preview. The summary line shows how many files will be created and how many pages each will contain. Colour badges on the thumbnails confirm which pages belong to which output file.
- Download your files. Click Split PDF to save the result. A single output downloads as a .pdf; two or more outputs bundle into a .zip so your browser does not block multiple downloads.
When you need to split a PDF
Most PDFs are one document, but plenty of them are really several documents glued together. A concatenated scan of five receipts. A 300-page board pack that needs to be filed as separate chapters. A draft manuscript where every chapter should ship as its own review file. Splitting those files into individual PDFs is the first step to sharing, filing, or archiving them properly.
Common scenarios we see every day:
- Separating scanned chapters of a book or textbook into individual files for a library catalog
- Extracting a specific section of a long report to share without the rest of the document
- Breaking a concatenated scan of multiple receipts or contracts back into the original single-document files
- Splitting a board pack or conference handout into per-topic PDFs for separate email threads
- Preparing chapter files from a draft manuscript for parallel review by different editors
- Extracting every page of a scanned exam or certificate as its own file for secure archiving
Once the files are split you may also want to merge several of them back together in a different order, compress each output for email, or rotate sideways scans before passing the files on.
How PDFluna splits your PDF
Most online PDF splitters upload your file to a server, run the split in the cloud, and email or download a ZIP back. That round trip is slow, raises privacy questions, and often truncates or re-encodes content on the way back.
PDFluna does none of that. When you drop a file onto the page it is read into memory using the browser's File API. We use Mozilla's PDF.js to render thumbnails for preview and pdf-lib to copy the selected page ranges into new documents. Pages are copied byte-for-byte — text layers, images, form fields, and page-level metadata are preserved exactly. Nothing is re-encoded and nothing is lossy.
When you split into two or more files we bundle them into a single ZIP using fflate, a tiny streaming ZIP library. The bundle uses store-mode (no compression) because PDFs are already compressed — adding a second compression layer would waste CPU without shrinking the file. The result is a single download instead of the browser fighting your download blocker on multiple sequential files.
Want different behaviour? We have a Merge PDF tool for the inverse operation, Remove Pages from PDF to delete specific pages instead of extracting them, and Edit PDF for editing the resulting files. You can verify the privacy angle yourself: open DevTools, switch to the Network tab, and split a file. You will see zero requests during processing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I split a PDF into multiple files?
Upload your PDF, choose a split mode, configure the page ranges (or let the tool split every N pages), then click Split PDF. A single output downloads as a .pdf; two or more outputs bundle into a single .zip. Everything runs in your browser — your file is never uploaded.
Can I split a PDF into uneven parts?
Yes. Use the Custom ranges mode and type ranges of any size — for example "1-12, 13-15, 16-47" will create three PDFs of 12, 3, and 32 pages. Ranges can also overlap if you want the same pages to appear in multiple output files.
What is the maximum file size?
The tool accepts PDFs up to 100 MB. Splitting is fast because pages are copied rather than re-encoded — only the thumbnail rendering scales with page count.
Will the split PDFs keep bookmarks and form fields?
Form fields, text layers, images and page metadata are preserved on every output. Bookmarks (the document outline) are currently stripped during splitting — this is a limitation of the underlying pdf-lib library. If you need bookmarks kept, split the file in a desktop PDF editor instead.
How do I get the split files — one at a time or together?
If you split into a single output, you get one .pdf download. If you split into two or more outputs, all the files are bundled into one .zip so your browser does not block the sequential downloads. Extract the .zip to get the individual PDFs.
Is my file uploaded to your server?
No. Everything happens in your browser using JavaScript. You can verify this by opening DevTools → Network tab while splitting: no requests are made during processing.
Can I split a password-protected PDF?
Not directly. Encrypted PDFs need to be unlocked first. Use our Unlock PDF tool to remove the password, then split the unlocked file here.
Does splitting reduce PDF quality?
No. Pages are copied byte-for-byte into each new file — no re-encoding, no recompression. The only tiny size increase you may see is the PDF catalog and metadata being duplicated across each output file, which is normal and unavoidable.