Four modes. Encrypted PDFs. A receipt for every page.
Free online PDF splitter that respects your bookmarks, your encryption and your sanity. Split by page range, by page count, by chapter (bookmark), or extract single pages — and download a transparent manifest of exactly what you got. 100 MB · no signup.
Built on the same class of enterprise-grade document processing technology used in mission-critical workflows at Fortune 100 companies — free for everyone.
- 🔒 256-bit HTTPS
- ⏱ 1-hour Auto-Delete
- ✅ GDPR Compliant
- 👁 No Human Review
- 🤖 No AI Training on Your Data
Drag & drop a PDF here, or click to select
Max 100 MB · PDF only · 1 file at a time
Why most online PDF splitters lose your bookmarks (and your patience)
Most free online PDF splitters offer one mode — page range — and even that one quietly drops bookmarks, ignores encryption, hits silly file-size walls and hands you a single download with no idea what's inside. ExcelMaster.ai gives you four splitting modes, accepts encrypted PDFs without any brute-force gymnastics, processes 100 MB documents page-by-page so memory doesn't melt, and ships every result with a transparent manifest of exactly which source pages went into each output. Built on industry-standard, mission-critical document processing technology — free, with no compromises on output quality.
What you actually get
Four real splitting modes
By page range, by page count, by chapter (PDF outline / bookmark), or extract single pages — pick the one that matches how you think about the document.
Chapter-aware splits
We walk the actual PDF outline tree, not heuristic page-heading guesses, and give you one PDF per chapter — title preserved as the filename.
Encrypted PDFs supported
Provide the open password and we split as usual. We never brute-force, we never share, the password is TLS-only and never logged.
Big PDFs handled gracefully
Page-by-page transfer — we hold one source doc + one destination doc at a time. 100 MB documents and 1000+ page reports go through without OOM.
Transparency manifest
Every split returns a per-output manifest — file name, page count, source page numbers, byte size — and a manifest.json inside the .zip. Verify what you got, not just that you got something.
No watermark, no daily lock
5 splits per day, 100 MB per file, encrypted PDFs included — all free forever. No 'preview-then-paywall', no Adobe-style 'one free split per 30 days'.
How to split a PDF online
- 1Upload your PDF — drag & drop, click, or paste from clipboard. Up to 100 MB, encrypted PDFs supported.
- 2Pick a split mode — by page range, by page count, by chapter (bookmark), or extract single pages. Each one has a one-line config panel.
- 3Click Preview — we tell you exactly how many output PDFs you'd get and (for chapter mode) the bookmark titles we found.
- 4Click Split & Download — typically under 3 seconds for 100-page PDFs, longer for very large or scanned files.
- 5Download the .zip — every output PDF plus a manifest.json with the full source-page mapping. Files auto-delete from our servers within 1 hour.
Why ExcelMaster outperforms the popular free PDF splitters
Truly free — no daily lock, no preview-then-paywall
5 splits per day, 100 MB per file, encrypted PDFs included — all free forever. Compare to Adobe Acrobat Online (30 days for 1 free split), SodaPDF (3 MB cap), Smallpdf (2 tasks/day), iLovePDF Premium ($7/mo for size-mode).
Chapter splitting that actually walks bookmarks
Sejda offers chapter mode but their UI is power-user only. Most others — iLovePDF, Smallpdf, PDF24, Adobe — only do page range / count. We walk the real PDF outline tree and hand back per-chapter PDFs with titles preserved.
Pre-flight preview that prevents accidents
Before splitting, we tell you 'we'd produce 47 PDFs' so you can refine. Industry first — no other free splitter warns you about 'split by single pages on a 1000-page report' before it bricks the operation.
Output transparency — see what you got
Every result ships a per-output manifest table (name / pages / source-page mapping / size) plus a manifest.json inside the .zip. Competitors return only a download button — we return a receipt.
Privacy-first by design
TLS 1.3 in transit · AES-256 at rest · 1-hour auto-delete · no human review · we never train AI on your file content. ToS makes it explicit; we make it audit-able.
Independent benchmark — see for yourself
We publish our methodology, test corpus and replication scripts at /benchmarks. No marketing fluff — just numbers. Compare merge / split / extract speed and fidelity against any of the popular tools.
Frequently asked questions
Is this PDF splitter truly free? What's the catch?
There's no catch. Free tier: 5 splits per day, 100 MB per file, encrypted PDFs included. We monetize through our optional ExcelMaster Add-in (AI inside Excel), not through this splitter. The free tier is intentionally generous because the splitter is our top-of-funnel for users who want more AI power inside Excel.
What's the difference between the four split modes?
By page range — paste '1-3, 5, 7-10' and you get three output PDFs. By page count — every N pages becomes one PDF. By chapter — we walk the PDF bookmarks/outline and hand back one PDF per chapter. Extract single pages — list specific pages and each becomes its own PDF. Use chapter mode for textbooks/reports, range mode for manual carving, count mode for chunking, single-page for surgical extraction.
How does chapter (bookmark) splitting work?
We walk the PDF outline tree (the bookmark sidebar inside Acrobat / Preview / browser PDF reader) and find each top-level entry. Each chapter becomes one output PDF with the chapter title in the filename. You can ask for level 1 (chapters only), level 2 (chapters + sub-sections), or level 3 (full outline).
What happens if my PDF has no bookmarks?
Chapter mode tells you 'no bookmarks at the requested level' and asks you to switch to range or count mode. We never silently fall back — you know exactly what happened.
Can it handle encrypted PDFs?
Yes — provide the open password and we split as usual. We do NOT brute-force or crack passwords. If you've lost the open password, that's outside our scope; reputable third-party services like LostMyPass attempt brute-force recovery.
How big a PDF can it handle?
100 MB per file, with no hard page-count limit. We process page-by-page so 1000+ page documents don't OOM the server. For files larger than 100 MB, split a slice off first with by-page-range, then iterate.
Does the output zip include a manifest?
Yes — by default. The zip includes every output PDF plus manifest.json listing each output's name, page count, source page numbers and size. You can disable manifest.json under Advanced if you don't want it.
Where are my files stored? For how long?
TLS 1.3 to our EU/US data centers · AES-256 at rest · automatic deletion within 1 hour of conversion. No human reviews your file. We do not use your content to train any AI model. ToS at /terms-of-service.
What's the file size limit?
100 MB per file in the free tier — among the most generous in the industry (SodaPDF 3 MB free, Adobe Acrobat Online 1 GB but 1 free split per 30 days, Smallpdf 2 tasks/day).
How long does a split take?
Typically under 3 seconds for a 100-page PDF, 1–3 seconds per 100 MB. Encrypted PDFs add 200–500 ms for the open-password handshake. Very large or graphically dense PDFs (financial decks, scanned reports) can take 5–15 seconds.
What about iLovePDF / Smallpdf / Adobe — how does this compare?
iLovePDF and Smallpdf put their best modes (by-size, by-text) behind a Premium paywall ($7-12/mo). Adobe Acrobat Online forces 30-day waits between free splits and requires a login. PDF24 is the closest free competitor but lacks chapter mode and pre-flight preview. ExcelMaster gives you all four modes free, plus the transparency manifest none of them ship.
Need to do more once it's split?
Try our ExcelMaster Add-in — AI assistant that lives inside Excel and writes formulas / pivots / charts / VBA / Python from natural language. Free 14-day trial, no credit card. The PDF splitter is part of our broader Free Tools suite — combine with PDF→Excel for full document workflows.