How to split a PDF into single pages

1. 1

   Open Split PDF and add the file

   Choose one PDF. If it asks for a password when you open it, unlock it first with Unlock PDF.

2. 2

   Choose “Each page”

   This mode makes one single-page PDF for every page in the file.

3. 3

   Review the list

   Every output appears with its page number and a thumbnail, so you can see that page 7 really is the receipt you expect.

4. 4

   Rename what matters

   Outputs are named after the original with the page number added. Rename any you'll need to find later, for example receipt_2026-10-03_taxi.pdf.

5. 5

   Download

   Download all pages at once as a ZIP, or one at a time.

Take a common case: after a work trip you feed 18 paper receipts through an office scanner, and it hands you one 18-page PDF. Your expense app wants one receipt per entry.

1. Open the scan in Split PDF and flip through the thumbnails. Two receipts were long and the scanner put each on two pages, so you have 20 pages, not 18.
2. Rather than bursting everything, use custom ranges so the long receipts stay whole: one range per receipt, with single numbers for one-page receipts and 4-5 and 11-12 for the two long ones. Each range becomes one file.
3. If every receipt fits on a single page, skip the ranges and choose “Each page”.
4. Rename the outputs with date and vendor while you're looking at the thumbnails, so the files sort by date on your disk.
5. Download the ZIP and attach each file to its expense entry.

The same pattern works for any stack of short documents: one-page forms get “Each page”, documents of a fixed length get “every N pages”, and mixed lengths get custom ranges.

By default, outputs carry the original file name plus the page, so scan.pdf becomes a set of files with the page number appended. That keeps them in order, but page numbers mean nothing a month later. Rename while the thumbnails are in front of you, using a pattern that sorts well:

• Date first for receipts and statements: 2026-10-03_taxi.pdf sorts chronologically in any folder.
• Person first for forms from a group: lee_permission-slip.pdf, ortiz_permission-slip.pdf.
• Number first for slides or handouts: 01_agenda.pdf, 02_budget.pdf.

Avoid slashes and colons in names; some systems reject them when you upload.

You don't have to burst the whole document. Two routes work:

• Pick the pages first. In Extract pages, select pages 2, 5 and 9, then switch on “each page as a separate file”. You get three single-page PDFs and nothing else.
• Clean up, then split. If the stack has a cover sheet and a few blank pages, delete them with Remove pages and split what's left, so you don't download files you'll throw away.

Duplex scans are where single-page splitting goes wrong, because each sheet produced two pages. Decide what one “document” is before you split:

• The ZIP won't open on a phone. Some mobile browsers save ZIPs without offering to unzip them. Open the ZIP from the phone's Files app, or download the pages one by one.
• A single page is still large. Splitting copies pages as they are and doesn't recompress images, so one page of a high-resolution scan can still be several megabytes. Run it through Compress PDF if a portal rejects it.
• Links and bookmarks stop working. A link on page 1 that pointed to page 9 has no target once those pages live in different files.
• Page numbers don't match the printed ones. Split uses each page's position in the file. A document with an unnumbered cover will look one off.

Yes. Split PDF works in a phone's browser, and the work happens on the phone itself, so a long scan of large images takes longer than on a laptop. For a stack of receipts or forms it's quick. Download the pages one by one if your browser saves the ZIP without offering to open it, or open the ZIP from the Files app. Renaming on a small screen is fiddly, so for big batches consider splitting on a computer, where you can rename outputs faster before downloading.

All three run in your browser: the PDF isn't uploaded and the download is free without an account.