Split PDF Online Free

A PDF splitter that works without uploading

To split a PDF, open it in Piqav Split PDF, choose how to divide it, and click Split. The file is split on your device and never uploaded. You can separate PDF pages into their own files, cut a PDF into page ranges, pick single pages, make equal parts, keep each part under a file-size limit, cut scanned two-page spreads down the middle, or make one file per chapter from the bookmarks. Pages are copied, not re-rendered, so quality does not change.

Seven ways to split, and when to use each

The last three are under More ways to split. To unmerge a PDF that was combined from several files, split it by bookmarks or by page ranges. To put parts back together later, combine the PDF files into one. If you want each page as a picture rather than a PDF, save each page as an image instead.

Fit an upload limit: split by file size

By file size is for a portal that takes several attachments but caps each one - five files of 2 MB, say. It tries different page counts for each part, keeps the most pages that still come in under your limit, and moves on to the next part. On our six-page test scan, where each page is a 208 KB image, a 500 KB limit gave three parts of two pages, each about 416 KB.

What it cannot do is make a page smaller. Set the same scan to 150 KB and every part is one page of about 208 KB - over the limit, because no page fits under it on its own. The tool writes such a page out anyway rather than dropping it, so check the sizes before you upload. If single pages are too big, the answer is compression, not splitting: compress the PDF first, then split the smaller file. For an email rather than a portal, what fits under an email limit walks through both steps.

Scanned books and chapters

Cut pages in half

This is for a scan of a book or a booklet where each page of the PDF holds two pages of paper. It cuts where you see the middle, even on pages the scanner stored sideways and turned for display: we tested pages stored at all four rotations, both ways, and every half showed exactly the text a reader sees on that side. Each half is the original page with the other half hidden, so nothing is re-rendered and a scan loses no sharpness - our six-page scan came out at 1,275,537 bytes from 1,275,423, because both halves share one copy of each image. The hidden half is still in the file, so this is for splitting spreads, not for removing anything. Tick Keep the first page whole (a cover) if the scan starts with a single cover.

By chapter

This makes one file per chapter from a document's own table of contents. Each file runs from its bookmark's page to the page before the next, is named after the bookmark, and keeps the bookmarks inside it, so a chapter's sections are still listed. Pages before the first bookmark, like a cover or a contents page, get a file of their own; bookmarks listed out of order, or two on one page, still give one file per chapter. A PDF without bookmarks cannot be split this way - use Page ranges.

How big the parts are, and how fast

Splitting copies pages into new PDF files without re-rendering them, so quality does not change, but each file carries its own copy of the fonts its pages use. We timed the Split screen on 8 October 2026 in Microsoft Edge on a laptop with a Core i5-12450H and 16 GB of memory. Each time is the median of three runs, from clicking Split to the download being ready.

A text document embeds each font once and uses it on every page, so splitting it into single pages gives every page its own copy, and that copy is most of each file. A scan is different: each page is its own picture, there is little to share, and the parts add up to the original. So if the goal is smaller files, split a text document into as few parts as you can, and do not expect single pages to be tiny.

What each part keeps

If you only want to remove some pages and keep everything else about the document, Delete Pages keeps tags and attachments, because it edits the original. The tests behind this table are in what survives each PDF tool.

Splitting a digitally signed PDF (DSC)

Why no part can keep the signature

A digital signature, including the digital signature certificate (DSC) used for company and tax filings in India, is a seal over the exact bytes of the whole file it was applied to. A part is a new, smaller file, so the seal cannot match it, whichever tool does the splitting. Before we changed how Piqav handles this, splitting a signed three-page agreement gave a part that still showed its "Digitally signed by" stamp while the signature failed verification - a page that looks signed and is not.

What Piqav does

The stamp stays on the signature page as part of what you see, and the signature field that would fail is removed, so no part claims a check it cannot pass. We tested this on 30 September 2026 by splitting a signed agreement into single pages and into ranges with and without the signature page: only the parts holding that page carried the stamp, and none carried a signature field. Unlike Merge PDF, Split does not attach the signed original, because the original holds pages each part is meant to leave out.

What to send instead

If someone needs to check the signature, send the original signed PDF alongside the parts. If the part itself has to be signed, have it signed again with the certificate. Drawing a signature on the page is not the same thing; electronic and digital signatures explains the difference.

Check for yourself that nothing is uploaded

It takes about a minute in Chrome, Edge or Firefox:

1. Open this page and press F12 (or right-click and choose Inspect), then open the Network tab.
2. Add your PDF, choose an option and click Split.
3. Look at the requests that appear. Click any of them and open its Payload (or Request) tab: none carries your file.

We ran the same check with a script on 8 October 2026, splitting a 3.2 MB file and recording every request from the moment it was added. The page made three: one for the Split screen's own code and two for the PDF renderer. None of them sent any data. Google's ad scripts may load as well; check their requests the same way. The same test for seven other tools is in why browser-based PDF tools are safer.

What Split PDF looks like

Two screens from the working tool, captured on 16 October 2026 with a 6-page, 57 KB report in it.