How to Split a PDF Online for Free

"Splitting a PDF" actually means three different things depending on what you need. You might want one new PDF containing only pages 1, 3, and 5–7 of a longer document (extracting). You might want a 30-page scan turned into three 10-page files (splitting by range). Or you might want a single PDF of scanned receipts back as 24 separate one-page PDFs (splitting every page). SafeConvert's Split PDF tool covers all three from one screen.

One tool, three modes. Open /split-pdf, upload a PDF, and pick the mode that matches your job. Each section below walks through one mode.

Mode 1: Extract pages (one new PDF)

The 3-step method

1. Open the Split PDF tool — go to safepdfconvert.com/split-pdf.
2. Upload your PDF — drag the file in, or click to browse.
3. Pick Extract pages, type the pages you want (e.g. 1, 3, 5-7), and click Extract pages.

You'll get back a single PDF containing only those pages, in the order you listed them. Page order is respected — typing 5, 1, 3 gives a PDF with page 5 first, then page 1, then page 3.

The page spec is forgiving: spaces are optional, en-dashes work the same as hyphens (handy if you're copy-pasting from a document), and you can mix single pages and ranges freely. 1, 3, 5-7, 12, 15-20 is fine.

Mode 2: Split into ranges (multiple PDFs, packaged as a ZIP)

The 3-step method

1. Open the same tool and upload your PDF.
2. Switch to Split into ranges.
3. Type the ranges — for example 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 — and click Split into ranges.

You'll get a ZIP file. Inside, one PDF per range you defined: document-pages-001-003.pdf, document-pages-004-006.pdf, and so on. File names include the page numbers so you can identify each section without opening it.

A single page in the ranges spec also works — 1-3, 5, 7-9 gives three PDFs, the middle one being a one-page PDF of page 5.

Mode 3: Every page (ZIP of one-page PDFs)

The 3-step method

1. Open the tool and upload your PDF.
2. Pick Every page — no page input needed for this mode.
3. Click Split every page.

The ZIP contains one single-page PDF per page in your source: document-page-001.pdf, document-page-002.pdf, etc. This is the right mode if you scanned a stack of receipts as one PDF and need them back individually, or if you're feeding the pages into a downstream system that wants one file at a time.

Picking the right mode — a quick guide

• You want one new PDF with specific pages → Extract pages.
• You want multiple PDFs, each containing a chunk of pages → Split into ranges.
• You want each page as its own file → Every page.
• You want to delete the last page → Extract pages with a spec that omits that page. For a 10-page PDF, 1-9 drops page 10.
• You want to reverse the page order → Extract pages with the order reversed: 10-1. The tool supports descending ranges.

File size and page limits

Up to 500 pages per PDF, with an upload limit of 50 MB. If your PDF exceeds that, shrink it first with the Compress PDF tool, or extract a subset of pages in two passes.

Tips for working with split PDFs

• Splitting copies pages exactly — text stays selectable, images keep their original resolution, hyperlinks within the extracted pages are preserved. The only thing that doesn't carry over is references to pages outside the slice (a table-of-contents entry that pointed to page 47 won't resolve if page 47 wasn't in your selection).
• For really big PDFs, the Extract mode is the fastest because it produces one output file. The Every-page mode on a 500-page PDF takes a few seconds and produces 500 small PDFs.
• Need to recombine pieces later? The Merge tool goes the other way.

Privacy notes

The uploaded PDF and the split output (single PDF or ZIP) are stored only for the time needed to process and deliver the result. Both are deleted from the server right after your download. No watermarks are added — ever. See the privacy policy for the full details.

Password-protected PDFs

The Split tool requires unprotected PDFs. If your PDF asks for a password to open, remove the password first using the desktop app it was created in (Preview on macOS, Adobe Acrobat, Word's "Save as PDF" without a password), then upload the unprotected copy.