How to split a PDF and extract pages on a Mac

With PDF Unlimited (free)

1. Open Pages mode

   Open the PDF in PDF Unlimited and click Pages in the toolbar mode switcher.

2. Select the first part

   Click the first page you want and ⌘-click the others. They do not need to be next to each other.

3. Extract

   Extract the selected pages to a new PDF. A new document opens with just those pages.

4. Save it

   Save the new PDF with a clear name, like Invoice-March.pdf.

5. Repeat

   Go back to the original and repeat for the next part. The original file is not changed by extracting.

With Preview, built into macOS

1. Drag to the desktop

   Open the PDF in Preview, choose View > Thumbnails, select the pages you want, and drag them from the sidebar to the desktop. Preview creates a new PDF with those pages.

2. Or print a range

   Choose File > Print, set Pages to a range such as 5 to 9, then open the PDF menu at the bottom of the dialog and choose Save as PDF.

Split, extract, or delete?

These overlap, so pick the one that matches the job:

• Extract when you want to keep a few pages as a new file and leave the original alone.
• Split when a long file needs to become several smaller ones, like a scanned stack of receipts. It is just extracting more than once.
• Delete when you want the same file minus a few pages. See delete pages from a PDF.

A note on the print method

Printing to PDF works anywhere you can print, but it rebuilds the document. Fillable form fields may be flattened, links and the outline may be lost, and annotations become part of the page. That is sometimes useful. For a clean copy of the original pages, extract instead.

Common reasons to split a PDF

Upload portals often limit file size or ask for each document separately. Splitting a 60-page scan into named parts, like ID, proof of address and bank statement, makes those forms much less painful. If a single part is still too large, compress it.

Going the other way and need one file from many? See how to combine PDFs.

Name the parts well

Splitting is half the job. The other half is making the pieces easy to find later. Name each file for what it is, not where it came from: 2026-03-Electric-Bill.pdf beats Scan_0047-part2.pdf. Dates at the start in year-month order sort neatly in the Finder.

If several parts belong together, put them in one folder before you send them. Some upload forms accept a folder of files more gracefully than one huge PDF.

Splitting a password-protected PDF

If the PDF asks for a password when you open it, enter it as usual and you can extract pages as normal. Extracted pages go into a new, unprotected file, so add a password again if the content is sensitive. See password protect a PDF.

Questions