How to extract pages from a PDF
Updated
Contents
To extract pages from a PDF, open Extract Pages, pick your file, select the pages you want, and download them as a new PDF. Every page appears as a thumbnail, so you can see exactly what you are keeping.
The work happens in your browser: the PDF stays on your device from start to finish, and there is no account to create. Your original is never changed, and the new file is named after it with -extracted added. Files up to 100 MB are accepted.
This guide covers the ways to select pages, what the new file keeps, and when Split PDF or Delete Pages is the better fit.
Step by step
- 1Open the Extract Pages tool.
- 2Pick the PDF, or drop it on the dashed area. It stays on your device, and a grid of page thumbnails fills in.
- 3Click each page you want to keep. Hold Shift and click to select a whole run of pages at once.
- 4Or type the pages as a list, such as 1-3, 5, and press Select.
- 5Press the button under the pages to build the new file on your device. It counts your selection, so it reads Extract 4 pages when four are chosen.
- 6Press Download PDF to save the new file, or Start over to load another document.
Ways to select pages
Clicking a thumbnail selects that page, and clicking it again deselects it. Holding Shift while you click selects every page between the one you touched last and this one.
In a long document, typing is faster. Enter single pages and ranges separated by commas, such as 1-3, 5, and press Select. A range can be left open: 8- runs from page eight to the end. To keep every other page, list them: 2, 4, 6, 8. Typing a list replaces the current selection, and you can fine-tune it by clicking thumbnails afterwards.
Select all, Clear and Invert change the whole selection at once. Invert is handy when it is easier to click the few pages you do not want: select those, press Invert, and extract the rest.
What the new file keeps
Bookmarks and form fields travel with the pages you keep: a bookmark to a kept page still opens it, and the kept pages' fields stay fillable with their values. A bookmark that opens only a page you left out is not carried. The file also keeps the title and author, page labels and the document language. Attached files and a tagged PDF's accessibility tags are not carried.
The new PDF always follows the original page order, so picking page 9 before page 2 still gives you 2, then 9. Pages are copied as they are rather than redrawn, so text stays selectable and images are not recompressed.
A link from a kept page to a page you left out is switched off, so the skipped page is not copied as a page. Two things can still come along. When a file's pages share one list of resources, as some programs write them, an image drawn only on a left-out page can still sit inside the new file, unseen; if it must not travel, black it out with Redact PDF first. And text you can see is copied as it is, so a contents page still lists sections you did not keep.
Common questions
Is my PDF sent to a server when I extract pages?
No. Extract Pages runs entirely in your browser, and the file stays on your device from start to finish.
Can I put the extracted pages in a different order?
Not in this tool: the new PDF follows the original order whatever order you click in. Use Organize Pages afterwards if you need to rearrange them.
Does the new PDF keep bookmarks and form fields?
Yes. Bookmarks and form fields travel with the pages you keep: a bookmark to a kept page still opens it, and the kept pages' fields stay fillable with their values. A bookmark that opens only a page you left out is not carried. The file also keeps the title and author, page labels and the document language. Attached files and a tagged PDF's accessibility tags are not carried.
How do I save each page as its own PDF?
Use Split PDF instead. Extract Pages always produces one file; Split PDF can make one file per page and gives you the pieces as a ZIP.
Why won't my PDF open?
The message on screen names the cause. A file over 100 MB is too large. An encrypted PDF has to be unlocked first, even one that only restricts printing or copying; if you know the password, Unlock PDF makes a decrypted copy you can bring back here. Unlike this tool, Unlock PDF runs on our secure server rather than in your browser.