Split a PDF in half
The tool splits by pages per part, not by number of parts. So “in half” simply means half of the total page count.
Work it out in one step
Open the file — the page count appears right under its name. Divide that number by two and type the result into “Pages per part”.
Example: the document has 248 pages. 248 ÷ 2 = 124. Enter 124 and you get exactly two parts of 124 pages each.
The hint under the file name shows how many parts you will get, so a mistake is visible before you press the button.
If the page count is odd
An odd number cannot be halved exactly, so one part will have one page more. Round up: for 249 pages enter 125 — the first part gets 125 pages and the second 124.
If you round down to 124 you end up with three parts: 124, 124 and a single page in the last one. That is the most common mistake when splitting in half.
Three, four or more equal parts
Same principle: divide the total page count by the number of parts you want and round up.
| Parts wanted | Formula | Example for 300 pages |
|---|---|---|
| 2 (in half) | pages ÷ 2 | 150 |
| 3 | pages ÷ 3 | 100 |
| 4 | pages ÷ 4 | 75 |
| 10 | pages ÷ 10 | 30 |
When equal parts are the wrong idea
If the document has to be cut by meaning — the introduction separately, then each chapter — equal parts will not do, because chapters are rarely the same length.
In that case people either split by the longest chapter or process the document in several passes, keeping the piece they need each time. Part names carry the page range, so finding your way around the result is easy.
Questions & answers
Can I specify the page number to cut at?
No, the tool splits into equal chunks of a given size. Arbitrary ranges need a page-extraction tool instead.
Can I split each page in half — into left and right halves?
No, that is a different job: cutting a two-page spread into single pages. Here the document is split, not the page itself.
What is the maximum number of parts?
As many as there are pages: enter 1 and every page becomes its own file. For hundreds of parts it is easier to take them as one ZIP.
Will the parts be equal in megabytes?
Not necessarily. An equal number of pages does not mean equal weight: a scanned page weighs far more than a page of text.