• 3 min read • PDF Tools

How to Split PDF Files: Step-by-Step Guide

Effortlessly separate pages or ranges from your PDF documents into new files, making document management and sharing simpler than ever.

Illustration showing a PDF document being split into multiple smaller files.
Extract exactly the pages you need.

Why Split a PDF?

Splitting PDFs is useful in various scenarios:

  • Extracting Specific Content: Get just the chapter, section, or pages you need from a large document.
  • Sharing Parts of a Document: Send only relevant pages instead of the entire file.
  • Reducing File Size: Create smaller, more manageable files from a bulky original.
  • Meeting Submission Requirements: Some platforms have file size or page limits, requiring you to split documents.

How to Split PDFs Online (Using PDFToys)

PDFToys offers a user-friendly way to split your PDFs directly in your browser:

  1. Visit the Tool: Go to the Split PDF tool on PDFToys.
  2. Upload Your PDF: Click "Select PDF file" or drag and drop the document you want to split.
  3. Choose Split Mode: You'll typically have options like:
    • Extract Pages: Select specific page numbers or ranges (e.g., 1, 3-5, 8) to extract into a single new PDF.
    • Split by Range: Define multiple ranges, each becoming a separate PDF (e.g., Range 1: 1-2, Range 2: 3-5).
    • Split Every X Pages: Automatically divide the PDF into smaller files, each containing a set number of pages.
    • Split All Pages: Create a separate PDF file for every single page in the original document.
  4. Specify Pages/Ranges: Enter the required page numbers or ranges according to the chosen mode. Our interface provides a preview to help you select correctly.
  5. Split: Click the "Split PDF" button.
  6. Download: Download the resulting PDF(s). If you created multiple files, they might be provided as individual links or bundled in a ZIP archive.

We prioritize your data security; uploaded files are automatically deleted from our servers after processing.

Tips for Splitting PDFs

  • Preview Pages: Use the preview feature in the tool to ensure you're selecting the correct pages or ranges.
  • Understand Page Numbers: Be sure you know the exact page numbers you want to extract or split by.
  • Organize Output: If splitting into many files (e.g., splitting all pages), ensure you have a plan for naming and organizing the resulting documents.