What Split PDF does
PDFGrover's Split PDF tool breaks one PDF into several smaller PDFs — by custom page ranges, one file per page, or fixed-size chunks. The pages you keep are copied exactly as they are: no re-encoding, no re-rendering, no quality loss. A 12-page contract split into a 3-page and a 9-page file gives you two PDFs whose pages are byte-for-byte the originals.
When to split a PDF
Splitting is the other half of every "this file is unwieldy" problem:
- Email size limits — break a large report into parts that each slip under a 10 MB or 25 MB attachment cap.
- Sharing one section — send only the signature page, the invoice, or chapter 4 instead of the whole 200-page document.
- Separating scanned batches — a stack scanned in one pass often needs to become one PDF per document (per invoice, per form).
- Page-level archiving — save every page of a register or ledger as its own file for indexing.
- Removing the rest — when you only need pages 5–12, splitting that range out is faster than deleting everything else.
How to split a PDF
- Upload a PDF (up to 200 MB) — drag it in or click to browse.
- Pick a split mode (see below). The panel on the right shows a live count of how many files you'll get, so you can adjust before committing.
- Click Split. One output downloads as a
.pdf; multiple outputs download together as a.zip.
The three split modes
- By page ranges (default) — type a comma-separated list like
1-3, 4-10, 11-20. Each range becomes one output file. Ranges can be any size and don't have to cover the whole document. - Every page — each page becomes its own PDF. A 50-page input produces 50 files.
- Every N pages — equal chunks of N pages (the last chunk is shorter if the count doesn't divide evenly). Handy for splitting a long scan into fixed-size batches.
Limits
- One file per split
- Up to 200 MB per upload
- Up to 2,000 output files per split — enough for a page-by-page split of a very long document. If you'd exceed it, run the split in two passes over different ranges.
Where it runs — and your privacy
Smaller splits run entirely in your browser — the file never leaves your device. The in-browser path is used when your PDF is 100 MB or smaller and you're producing 100 outputs or fewer.
Above either threshold (e.g. "Every page" on a 500-page document) the work moves to our secure server, because doing it in the browser would be slow and memory-hungry. The same splitting logic runs in both places, so the output is identical — only the location differs. If an in-browser split can't complete for any reason, the tool automatically retries on the server without making you re-upload. Server uploads go over HTTPS, the file is split, and the source is deleted as soon as your download is ready. Close the tab mid-split and the job is cancelled and temporary files cleared automatically. No sign-up, no watermark, no copies kept.
Output and file names
- One output range → a single
.pdfdownloads directly. - Multiple outputs → a
.zipwith each file named for its pages —split_1_pages_1-3.pdf,split_2_pages_4-6.pdf, etc., in the order you defined — so they stay sorted and self-describing.
Tips
- Preview the count first. The live output count catches a typo'd
range (
1-100instead of1-10) before you generate 100 files. - Recombine later if needed. Split too aggressively? Merge PDF puts pieces back together in any order.
- Just dropping pages? If you only want to remove a few pages rather than split, Delete Pages is the cleaner tool.
- Need just a slice? Extract Pages pulls one range into a single file in one step.
Troubleshooting
- "Invalid range" — use numbers and hyphens only, comma-separated
(
1-3, 7, 10-12); page numbers must exist in the document. - Too many output files — narrow your ranges or use Every N pages to stay under the 2,000-file cap.
- File won't upload — confirm it's a real PDF under 200 MB; unlock it first with Unlock PDF if it's password-protected.
- Output larger than expected — splitting copies pages as-is; run a part through Compress PDF if size matters.