Split PDF
Extract pages or split a PDF into separate files.
or drag and drop · max 50 MB
Long PDFs are everywhere — bank statements that span twelve months in one file, contracts with dozens of pages where you only need three, textbook chapters bundled into a single 400-page download, scanned document piles that came back from the scanner as one huge file. Splitting one of these into smaller, usable pieces is one of the most common PDF tasks people do, and it's the kind of task most users still default to either a paid desktop tool or a free online service that asks them to upload their PDF to a server they've never heard of. iSavePDF's Split PDF tool runs entirely in your browser using pdf-lib — pick the page ranges you want, click Split, and download the resulting smaller PDFs as a ZIP. Your file never leaves your device throughout the process. That privacy matters because the PDFs people split tend to contain things they wouldn't want a third-party service logging: bank statements with account numbers, contracts with personal data, medical records, legal documents, tax filings, financial reports. The tool is free, has no signup, no daily limit, doesn't add a watermark to the output, and works on every modern browser including iOS Safari and Android Chrome.
Step by step
How to split pdf on iSavePDF
Open Split PDF on iSavePDF
Visit isavepdf.com/split-pdf in any modern browser. The page loads instantly without an account, an extension, or a download. It also works offline once cached — useful when you're on a flight or somewhere with patchy connectivity and need to extract pages from a contract or report you have locally.
Drop your PDF into the upload zone
Drag a PDF onto the upload zone or click to pick one from your device. The tool accepts a single PDF up to about 50 MB. Once loaded, the page count appears so you know what you're working with — useful when you can't remember whether your contract is 12 pages or 47.
Specify page ranges
Type the pages or ranges you want using comma-separated values. For example, `1-3,5,7-9` produces three output PDFs: pages 1 through 3 as one file, page 5 alone as a second, and pages 7 through 9 as a third. You can also enter a single page (`5`) or a single range (`1-10`) to get one extracted PDF. Spaces around the commas are ignored, so format the input however reads cleanest to you.
Click Split and wait
Hit Split. Your browser uses pdf-lib to copy the selected pages from your original PDF into new, smaller PDFs — losslessly, with no re-encoding or quality loss. The operation completes in seconds for typical files. For long documents (200+ pages) or very large files, expect a few seconds more while pdf-lib finishes reading and writing.
Download the split files
If you specified multiple ranges, the outputs are bundled into a single ZIP so you can save them in one click. If you specified just one range, you get a single PDF file directly — no ZIP wrapper. Your original PDF is untouched throughout — splitting creates new files containing the selected pages, it doesn't modify the source.
How it works
How Split PDF works
Upload your PDF
Drop your file into the upload zone — pages are listed for you to pick from.
Pick the pages or ranges
Enter ranges like 1-3,5,7-9 or click individual pages to extract them.
Download the split files
Each range becomes its own PDF, bundled into a ZIP if there are several.
When to use it
Common use cases
Extracting a single chapter or section
Books, textbooks, manuals, and long reports often come as one large PDF when you really only need one chapter. Reading the whole thing on a phone is awkward; sending the whole thing to a study group is wasteful. Splitting out just the section you want gives you a portable, shareable, focused document. Particularly common for students extracting required reading from a course pack, lawyers pulling exhibits out of a long brief, and researchers extracting a specific paper from a bundled collection.
Breaking up bank statements and financial reports
Banks often issue twelve months of statements as a single PDF. Sending all twelve months to your accountant when they only asked for Q4 is both wasteful and a privacy overshare. Splitting out the pages that cover the requested period gives you exactly what they asked for and nothing more. Same logic applies to brokerage statements, credit card statements, and any periodic financial document that arrives bundled. The privacy angle matters: these documents contain account numbers and transaction history that should travel only as far as they need to.
Separating signed pages from blank originals
When a contract is signed, the result is often a scanned PDF where the first ten pages are the printed contract and the last two are the signature pages and any annexes. Sending the whole thing back to the counterparty is fine — but archiving the file usefully often means splitting the signed pages out separately so they're easy to retrieve later as proof. Same for personnel paperwork, legal filings, and any document where the signature pages are the part that actually matters going forward.
Trimming a multi-document scan into individual files
Office scanners and phone scanning apps frequently dump everything fed into them as a single multi-page PDF — even when you were scanning unrelated documents one after the other (receipts, ID copies, invoices, signed forms, letters). Splitting that bundle back into individual one- or two-page PDFs gives you a tidy archive where each file represents one document. Renaming each output and filing them takes minutes; trying to navigate a 40-page omnibus PDF when you need one specific receipt takes hours.
Why iSavePDF
The privacy-first way to split pdf
Most free online PDF splitters work by uploading your file to a remote server, running the split there, and sending the smaller PDFs back. That round trip is fine for documents you'd be comfortable mailing to a stranger — but a huge percentage of PDFs people split are exactly the kind they wouldn't. Bank statements. Contracts with signatures. Medical paperwork. Legal filings. Tax returns. Personnel records. Sending these through a free conversion service means your file briefly lives on someone else's storage, is processed in their pipeline, and may be logged or retained longer than their privacy policy implies. For documents under professional confidentiality (legal, medical, financial) or compliance regimes (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2), that secondary exposure can actually be a policy violation.
iSavePDF runs the entire split operation inside your own browser tab using pdf-lib, a mature open-source JavaScript library for PDF manipulation. The PDF is read into your browser's memory, the page selection happens there, the new PDFs are built there, and the result is bundled into a ZIP and handed to your browser's download mechanism. No file content ever crosses the network. Open DevTools, switch to Network, run a split — you'll see zero outbound requests carrying your PDF data. The tool is free with no enforced page limits, no signup, no watermark on the output, and no upsell. We fund the site with display ads on the page, not by analysing or storing the documents people split.
Tips & limits
Tips for the best results
Range syntax accepts commas and dashes
Use dashes for ranges and commas to separate multiple ranges. For example, `1-3,5,7-9` extracts pages 1-3, page 5, and pages 7-9 as three separate output PDFs. Spaces around the commas are ignored. A single page like `5` produces one output PDF containing just that page. A single range like `1-10` produces one PDF containing pages 1 through 10.
Split vs Extract — different tools for different needs
Split PDF produces multiple output files, one per range. Extract PDF Pages produces a single combined output containing all the pages you selected, in the order you listed them. Pick Split when you want to break a document into pieces (chapter 1 as its own file, chapter 2 as its own file). Pick Extract when you want one combined file containing only selected pages (a custom highlights reel).
Splitting is lossless
Page copies are exact — fonts, images, vector graphics, form fields, and digital signatures all survive splitting. Output file sizes are roughly proportional to the page count selected. The output is structurally a normal PDF that works in every reader, and you can re-merge split outputs later with the Merge PDF tool if you change your mind about how the document should be divided.
Want every page as its own file?
Enter a range like `1-1,2-2,3-3,…` covering every page — tedious for long documents but it works. Alternatively, just use the Extract PDF Pages tool with one range per page. Either way the result is a ZIP containing one single-page PDF per page of the original. Useful for converting a long document into a per-page archive.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Yes — completely free with no signup, no daily limit, no watermark on output files, and no upsell. iSavePDF is funded by display ads on the page, which is how we keep all 45 tools open and free. There is no paid tier or premium version of any tool.