How to Split a PDF or Extract Pages
Pull out the pages you need or break a long PDF into separate files, without losing quality.
3 min read
Often you need only part of a PDF: the two pages of a contract that need a signature, one chapter of a textbook, a single payslip out of a year's worth, or the pages an upload form will accept. Other times a scanner has put a whole stack of documents into one file and you need them apart again. Splitting does both, and done right it does not touch the quality of the pages at all.
Three ways to split a PDF
- Extract pages: pick the pages you want and get them as one new PDF.
- Split every page: turn a 12-page file into 12 single-page PDFs.
- Split every N pages: cut a long file into equal parts, for example a stack of scanned two-page forms into one file per form.
How to split a PDF with QodeCat
The Split PDF tool works in your browser. The file is never uploaded, which matters for payslips, medical letters and contracts.
- Click the drop area or drag one PDF onto it. The file name, size and page count appear.
- Choose a mode: Extract pages, Split every page or Split every N pages.
- For Extract pages, type the pages into Pages to extract, for example 1-3, 5, 8-10. For Split every N pages, enter how many pages each file should have.
- Click Extract & Download or Split & Download Zip. Extracted pages download as one PDF named after your file (report_pages.pdf). Split files come together in a zip, with names such as report_page_1.pdf or report_part_1_pages_1-2.pdf.
If a range does not make sense, the tool tells you exactly which part is wrong, for example when a range starts after it ends or goes past the last page.
Writing page ranges
- Separate pages and ranges with commas: 1, 4, 7-9.
- Pages are added in the order you type them, so 3, 1, 2 puts page 3 first. That makes extracting a quick way to reorder a few pages too.
- A page you list twice is included only once.
- Write ranges from low to high. 5-2 is rejected rather than reversed.
Quality and file size
Pages are copied, not re-rendered, so text stays selectable and images keep their resolution. Do not expect the parts to add up to the original size, though: each new file carries the fonts and images its own pages need, so a single extracted page from a 10 MB file may still be fairly large. If a part is too big to send, run it through Compress PDF.
Common problems
- Password-protected PDFs cannot be opened. Remove the protection first; the PDF Password tool can help if you know the password.
- The page numbers printed on the pages may not match the PDF page numbers, for example when there is a cover or a roman-numbered preface. The range always uses the position in the file, starting at 1.
- Bookmarks (the outline in the sidebar of your PDF reader) are not copied to the new files.
Related tools: put parts back together with Merge PDF, fix sideways pages with Rotate & Reorder PDF, or deal with protected files using PDF Password.
Frequently asked questions
Can I split several PDFs at once?
No, the tool works on one PDF at a time. To take pages from several files into one document, extract from each and then merge the results.
Does splitting work on a phone?
Yes. Extracting gives you a single PDF, which is easiest to handle on a phone. Split modes download a zip, which most phones can open in their file manager.