Split a PDF online — ranges, AI chapters, ZIP export

Drop your PDF into iFillPDF, pick a split mode (custom ranges like 1-5, 10, 15-20, AI chapter auto-detection, by maximum file size, or by fixed interval), and download every part as a ZIP — no signup, no credit card, no email address asked. Adobe Acrobat online forces a sign-in after upload, pdfFiller forces a full account, and Smallpdf caps the free tier at 2 split tasks per day. We cap at zero. Most documents take 2-5 seconds end-to-end on a mid-range laptop.

Yes. No signup, no credit card, no 2-document-per-day cap (the Smallpdf free-tier limit), no 25 MB ceiling (the iLovePDF free-tier limit), no 50 MB / 200-page / 3-task-per-hour cap (the Sejda free-tier triple limit), no 7-day Acrobat Pro trial gate ($19.99/mo after). Split 200 contracts in a row if you need to. The whole tool runs in your browser, so we have no per-file server cost to ration.

No. iFillPDF splits entirely client-side in your browser using the PDF-lib WebAssembly engine. Your file never leaves your device — not to us, not to AWS, not to anyone. iLovePDF, Smallpdf, pdfFiller, Adobe Acrobat online and PDF24 all upload to their cloud, process server-side, then push the file back. Under GDPR Art. 4(2), processing implies the data is held by a controller — when the data never leaves your device, the legal risk surface disappears entirely.

Yes. Our AI scans the PDF outline, heading hierarchy and table of contents structure to spot chapter breaks automatically — even on scanned PDFs with no bookmark layer (where Adobe Acrobat Pro silently fails because it only splits on top-level bookmarks if they already exist). Concrete use cases: a 250-page legal contract gets split clause-by-clause in one click, an academic thesis is split chapter-by-chapter, a 12-month bank statement bundle is split month-by-month, an HR onboarding packet is split form-by-form. iLovePDF, Smallpdf, pdfFiller, PDF24 and PDF2Go offer zero chapter detection.

Yes. The ISO 32000-2:2020 page tree is rebuilt cleanly in every output PDF: bookmarks for each section are reconstructed (PDF24 free tier drops them), AcroForm fields keep their data and validation rules, PAdES / digital signatures stay valid where the split keeps the signed page intact. Most cheap splitters silently break signature integrity by re-encoding the page tree — we keep the original byte stream where possible and only rewrite the metadata table.

Pick the split-by-maximum-file-size mode and set the target to 25 MB (Gmail) or 20 MB (Outlook.com / Microsoft 365 / iCloud Mail). The splitter cuts the source PDF at page boundaries that keep every output under your target — no manual range maths. Useful for real-estate disclosures, IRS Form 1040 packets with attachments, medical records, scanned legal evidence bundles. Adobe Acrobat Pro requires the desktop app for this; iLovePDF and Smallpdf force you to compress separately first.

Four hard differences. (1) iFillPDF is the only splitter with AI chapter auto-detection on scanned PDFs — Adobe Acrobat Pro ($19.99/mo) only splits on existing top-level bookmarks. (2) iFillPDF runs 100% client-side via WebAssembly — Adobe, Smallpdf, iLovePDF, pdfFiller and PDF24 all upload to their cloud. (3) iFillPDF has no daily cap — Smallpdf caps free users at 2 documents/day, Sejda at 3 tasks/hour. (4) iFillPDF is hosted in Frankfurt eu-central-1 under EU TADPF, outside the reach of the US Cloud Act — Adobe and Smallpdf process on US-East-1 AWS.

It is GDPR-by-design, not just compliant. Because no personal data ever leaves your device (the splitter runs in your browser via WebAssembly), there is no data transfer to log under GDPR Art. 30, no processor agreement to sign under GDPR Art. 28, no Transfer Impact Assessment to file under GDPR Art. 46. Static assets and any optional account data sit in Frankfurt eu-central-1 (Hetzner Falkenstein, ISO 27001 + EU TADPF certified), outside the reach of the US Cloud Act and 50 USC §3024. Even EU-hosted competitors still process your file on their infrastructure — we do not process it at all.

Around 200 MB on a modern laptop, limited only by your browser memory. Compare: Smallpdf caps free users at 5 MB, iLovePDF at 25 MB, pdfFiller at 100 MB, Sejda at 50 MB. Adobe Acrobat online accepts up to 1 GB but forces a sign-in and 1,500-page hard cap. We cap at what your machine can hold — a 500-page legal contract or a 1,000-page bank statement bundle splits in under 10 seconds on an M1 MacBook Air.

Yes — once the iFillPDF page has loaded, you can disconnect from the internet and keep splitting PDFs. The WebAssembly engine runs entirely in your browser tab. Try that with iLovePDF, Smallpdf, pdfFiller, Adobe Acrobat online or PDF24 — all of them require a live connection to upload your file to their server.