Split any PDF into multiple files using flexible page ranges. Browser-based, lossless, private. Free unlimited use. 100% free, private, and browser-based.
The PDF Split by Range tool divides one PDF into multiple smaller files based on the page ranges you define. Unlike size-based splitting, this gives you total control — split a book into chapters, separate invoices in a batch, or extract sections of a long report into standalone documents.
Use commas inside a group and a semicolon (or newline) between groups. Example: 1-3; 4-10; 11, 15-20. Each group becomes one output PDF, in the order you list the pages.
Processing happens entirely inside your browser using JavaScript. Your PDF never leaves the device, making this tool safe for confidential reports, medical records, legal papers, and financial documents.
The workflow takes under a minute once you know your page numbers. First, open the PDF and note which physical pages belong to each output file. A quick way to do this is to scroll through the document and write down the page where each section starts — for example, chapter one begins on page 1, chapter two on page 18, chapter three on page 34. Then upload the file here, enter one range per group, and run the split. The tool produces one PDF per group, ready to download individually or as a set.
If you are not sure where sections begin, most PDF viewers let you jump to bookmarks or the table of contents, which usually lists page numbers. Match those numbers to the physical page order in the file — printed page numbers in the document footer often differ from the actual page position, especially when a book includes a preface or roman-numeral front matter.
Groups are separated by semicolons, and pages inside a group are separated by commas or hyphens. A group like 1-5 produces one PDF containing pages one through five. A group like 1,3,5 produces one PDF containing only those three pages, skipping two and four. You can mix both: 1-4, 7, 9-12 keeps pages one to four, page seven, and pages nine to twelve together in a single output file.
A few rules worth knowing before you start:
5-1 or list pages out of sequence, the tool keeps the pages in the order you type them, so double-check reversed ranges.When splitting dozens of groups, write your list in a text editor first. It is much easier to review 1-8; 9-16; 17-24; 25-32 on one line than to fix a mistake after downloading forty files.
Long documents are easier to review, print, and archive in parts. A 400-page employee handbook splits naturally into policy sections. A training manual becomes one module per file. A thesis becomes chapters that a supervisor can comment on separately. The split preserves the original page quality — text stays selectable, images stay at full resolution, and internal fonts carry over, because each output PDF is built from the original page objects rather than re-rendered screenshots.
A practical pattern for manuals: give each output file a shared prefix (for example, handbook-part1.pdf, handbook-part2.pdf) so they sort correctly in a folder. If your document has a cover page and table of contents you want in every part, include those pages in each group — for example, 1-3; 1-3, 4-20; 1-3, 21-40 keeps the front matter attached to all three sections.
Accounting and administration teams deal with merged files constantly. A print-to-PDF batch of 60 invoices, a bank's combined monthly statements, or a stack of event certificates all arrive as one long PDF. Splitting by range turns that single file into individual documents in seconds — far faster than opening a PDF editor and using "extract pages" sixty times.
The key is knowing how many pages each record occupies. Most invoice batches are uniform: each invoice is exactly one or two pages. If every invoice is two pages, your ranges are simply 1-2; 3-4; 5-6 and so on. For mixed-length batches, skim the document once and note the boundaries — usually the start of each invoice is obvious from the header. Some finance teams standardize their print templates precisely so batches split predictably later.
Three tools overlap here, and picking the right one saves time. Split by Range is the choice when you know which pages belong together — chapters, invoices, sections. Split by Size is the choice when you have a file-size limit, such as a 10MB upload cap, and do not care where the breaks land; it automatically divides the document into parts that each fit the limit. Page Extractor is the choice when you want just a few pages out of a document, not the whole thing reorganized.
They also combine well. A common sequence: extract the pages you actually need, then split the remainder by range, then compress any part that is still too large to email. Because all three tools process files locally in your browser, you can move between them without re-uploading anything or worrying about where the document traveled.
Splits are most useful when the results are easy to file. Before splitting, decide on a naming convention: document name, part number, and optionally the page range in the filename (such as annual-report_p12-31.pdf). Renaming after the fact is tedious for large splits, while renaming two or three files is trivial. For chapter splits, consider including the chapter title in the filename so recipients do not need to open each file to identify it.
If you are distributing the parts to different people, keep the original PDF until every recipient confirms they received the right section. The split files are new documents built from the original pages, and having the source on hand makes it easy to redo a split with corrected ranges if someone reports a missing page.
Splitting runs entirely on your device, so speed depends on your machine rather than a server queue. Documents up to a few hundred pages process almost instantly. A 2,000-page scanned manual may take several seconds per group because each page's image data must be copied into the new file. The browser needs enough free memory to hold the original plus the outputs, so for very large files, close unused tabs if the process feels slow.
One efficiency tip for huge documents: instead of splitting a 1,500-page file into 100 single-page groups in one run, split it into ten 150-page parts first, then split each part separately. Each run stays fast and memory-light, and a mistake in one batch does not force you to redo the entire split.
1-5, 6-10 as two intended groups actually produces one ten-page file, because the comma joins the groups.21-28, pages 29 and 30 appear nowhere.After a split, open one output file from the middle of the set and confirm its first page is the section you expected. That single 10-second check catches nearly every range mistake before files go out to clients or colleagues.
Range splitting is often used on material that must stay confidential: client contracts, patient records, payroll files, tender documents. Because this tool parses the PDF with JavaScript inside your browser session, the document's contents never cross the network — there is no upload endpoint to intercept and no server copy that could persist. You can confirm this yourself by opening your browser's developer tools and watching the network tab while a split runs: no file data is transmitted.
Two residual risks are worth knowing. First, the downloaded parts carry the same security properties as the original — if the source PDF was encrypted or carried restrictions, handle the outputs with the same care. Second, files in your browser's memory and download folder are on your device; if you are on a shared or public computer, delete the downloads and empty the trash when you finish.
Related tools that pair well with this one: use Merge PDF to recombine parts later, Split PDF by Size when the limiting factor is a file-size cap, and PDF Page Extractor when you only need a handful of pages from a large document.
Split by Size cuts a PDF into chunks under a target megabyte limit (good for email). Split by Range lets you choose exactly which pages go into each output file — perfect for separating chapters, sections, or invoices.
Use a semicolon between groups. For example, '1-3; 4-10; 11, 15-20' produces three PDFs containing those exact pages in order.
Yes. The same page number may appear in multiple ranges. The tool copies the page into each output independently — useful for cover pages or appendices.
Yes. Pages are copied at full fidelity via pdf-lib — fonts, images, vectors and form fields stay intact. There is no re-rendering or recompression.
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