Splitting a PDF usually means one of two things: pulling a handful of specific pages out of a larger document, or breaking one large file into smaller, more manageable pieces. This tool does both, either by page range or by a fixed chunk size, and hands the result back as separate files or a single zip.
Page ranges follow a simple pattern: numbers separated by commas, with a dash for a span. "1-3,5,8-10" pulls pages one through three, page five on its own, and pages eight through ten, all into your output. Ranges are 1-indexed, so page 1 really is the first page of your document, not the second. You can mix single pages and spans freely in the same request.
Chunk splitting is a different tool for a different job: instead of choosing which pages you want, you are dividing the whole document evenly. Set a chunk size of 20 and a 200-page manual becomes ten 20-page sections automatically, useful for breaking something down into review-sized pieces or getting under an email attachment limit without picking pages by hand.
The requests that land here tend to be specific: pulling a signature page out of a long contract so it can be signed and returned without resending the whole thing, extracting one chapter from a scanned textbook, separating a batch of invoices that got scanned into a single file, or pulling just the exhibits out of a legal filing. Knowing exactly which pages you need before you start saves a round trip, since ranges and chunk size are two different requests, not one flexible setting.
Worth knowing before you split: each output file starts fresh. If your source PDF has bookmarks or a table of contents linking to specific pages, those do not carry over to the split pieces, since a bookmark pointing to page 47 of the original document has nothing to point to once that page is now page 12 of a new file.
Output files are named by position: split-1.pdf, split-2.pdf, and so on, or by the page range you specified. That naming is deliberate rather than descriptive, since the tool has no way to know that pages 12 through 18 are actually the appendix. Renaming the pieces once you have them, especially if you are about to send several to different people, is worth the extra minute so nobody receives a file called split-3.pdf and has to guess what it is.
For anyone who normally reaches for a full PDF editor just to delete a couple of pages: splitting is often the faster path for that exact job. Pick the range that excludes the pages you do not want, download the result, and you have effectively removed them, without installing software or learning an editor's interface for a one-off task. It is the same underlying operation, approached from the other direction.
Choosing between separate files and a zip comes down to what you are about to do with the pieces. If you are pulling one exhibit out of a filing to email to a single recipient, a separate file is simpler, nothing to unzip on the other end. If you are breaking a long document into a full set of sections you will be filing away or sending to different people, a zip keeps everything together as one download instead of ten, and you sort it out once you actually need the individual pieces.
Pages 1 through 3, page 5 on its own, and pages 8 through 10, all pulled into your output. Commas separate individual pages or spans, and a dash defines a span. Page numbering starts at 1.
Ranges let you choose exactly which pages you want. Chunk size divides the whole document evenly into pieces of N pages each, without you having to specify which pages go where.
No. Pages are copied across exactly as they are in the source file.
Yes. Set the chunk size to 1 and each page becomes its own file.
Uploads are capped at 50MB. For anything larger, splitting it on your device first or reducing it with Compress PDF beforehand is the usual workaround.
By position, split-1.pdf, split-2.pdf, and so on. Rename them after downloading if you need something more descriptive before sending them on.
Yes, Merge PDF does exactly that. Split and merge are companion tools: one takes a document apart, the other puts pieces back together.