How to split a PDF into separate pages

Sometimes you don't want a whole PDF, you want page 4 out of a 40-page contract, or you need to break a scanned booklet into one file per page because an upload form only accepts single pages. Splitting is quick once you can actually see the pages you're working with, rather than guessing page numbers from a file you can't preview.

Two different ways to split

There are two genuinely different things people mean by "split a PDF," and the Split PDF tool handles both:

• Extract selected pages into one new file. Useful when you want, say, pages 3 to 7 of a larger document pulled out as their own PDF.
• Split into one file per page. Useful for upload forms or workflows that only accept single-page files, or when every page needs to be filed separately.

Common scenarios

A few situations where this comes up a lot: pulling just the signature page out of a 40-page contract to send for a quick re-sign, breaking a scanned booklet into individual chapter files, extracting a single invoice from a batch-scanned stack of paperwork, or splitting a multi-page form into one page per applicant because the system on the other end genuinely can't handle a multi-page upload. In each case, the alternative, re-scanning just the part you need, is slower and often not even possible if you no longer have the original paper.

Step by step

1. Open the tool and add your PDF, every page renders as a thumbnail so you can see what you're selecting instead of guessing from page numbers alone.
2. Click pages to select them, or type a range like 1-3,5,8-10 into the text field, clicking and typing stay in sync with each other, so you can start with a typed range and fine-tune it by clicking.
3. Choose "Extract Selected Pages" for one combined file, or "Download Each Selected Page Separately" for individual files.

A few things worth knowing

• Downloading many separate files will prompt your browser. Most browsers ask permission before allowing several downloads at once, that's the browser protecting you from download spam, not a bug in the tool.
• Selecting the inverse is often faster. If you want the whole document minus one page, click "Select all" and then click the one page you don't want, rather than clicking through every page you do want.
• Password-protected PDFs won't open. The tool needs to read the file to generate thumbnails, and an encrypted PDF can't be read without its password first.

After you split

A split file often isn't the final step. If the pages you extracted came out in the wrong order or need one flipped the right way up, Organise PDF Pages handles reordering and rotation on the extracted file. And if the pages were part of a large scanned document, the extracted file inherits that same file size, running it through Compress PDF afterward is worth doing if you're now sending just one or two pages and the file still feels unexpectedly large.

What happens to file names

When you extract selected pages into one file, the download keeps a name based on your original file with "-pages" added, so it's easy to tell apart from the source. When you download each page separately, every file is named with its page number included, so a folder of them sorts in the right order automatically instead of ending up as a pile of identically-named downloads you have to open one by one to identify.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• How to merge multiple PDFs into one file
• How to rotate, delete and reorder PDF pages