How to Split PDF Online — Best Free Tools (2026)

Got a 200-page report and only need pages 15-23? A scanned document where every other page is blank? A PDF splitter lets you extract, separate, and reorganize pages — without Adobe Acrobat. Here are the best free ways to split PDFs in 2026.

Three Ways to Split a PDF

1. Extract Specific Pages

Keep only the pages you need. For example, extract pages 5, 12-18, and 25 from a 100-page document. The output is a new PDF containing just those pages.

2. Split by Range

Divide a PDF into chunks. For example, split a 100-page PDF into four 25-page files. Useful for breaking large documents into chapters or sections.

3. Split Every Page

Extract every single page as its own PDF file. A 50-page PDF becomes 50 separate files. Useful for document management systems or when you need individual page files.

Browser-Based Splitting (Recommended)

The privacy-first approach: split PDFs directly in your browser. Here is how:

1. Go to PDF Toolbox — Split PDF
2. Drop your PDF file
3. Choose your split method: extract pages, split by range, or one page per file
4. For extract mode: type the page numbers you want (e.g. “1,3,5-10,15”)
5. For range mode: set how many pages per chunk
6. Download — each split portion downloads as a separate PDF

Desktop Tools for Heavy Use

If you split PDFs daily as part of your workflow, desktop tools offer batch processing and automation:

• PDF24 Creator (Windows): Free, offline, splits by page count or custom ranges. No uploads.
• PDFsam Basic (Windows/Mac/Linux): Open-source PDF split and merge tool. Supports every page, odd/even, and custom ranges.
• Preview (Mac): Built-in — drag pages out of the sidebar to create new PDFs. Quick but manual.

Command Line: pdftk (For Developers)

# Extract pages 1-5 from input.pdf
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 output pages1-5.pdf

# Split every page into separate files
pdftk input.pdf burst

# Extract specific pages
pdftk input.pdf cat 1 3 5-10 15 output selected.pdf

# Split into chunks of 20 pages
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-20 output chunk1.pdf
pdftk input.pdf cat 21-40 output chunk2.pdf

pdftk (PDF Toolkit) is a free command-line tool available on Linux, Mac, and Windows. It handles large files efficiently and can be scripted for batch processing.

Comparison Table

Common Use Cases

Removing blank pages from a scanned PDF

Scanned documents often include blank pages (the back of each sheet). Use “extract pages” mode to select only the non-blank pages. In PDF Toolbox, type the page numbers of content pages and skip the blanks.

Separating chapters of an eBook

Got a combined PDF of a multi-volume book? Use “split by range” mode to separate it into individual volumes. Set the range to match the page count of each volume.

Extracting a single form from a packet

Tax packets, application forms, and legal documents often come as multi-page PDFs where you only need one specific form. Extract just those pages.