Separate scanned invoices into individual files.
A stack of paper invoices run through a scanner usually comes back as one long PDF with no bookmarks and no searchable text. PDF SmartSplit can still separate it — by a fixed page interval — entirely in this browser tab, with nothing uploaded.
No signup. No install. Free for files up to 30 pages.
Wait — is your PDF a scan?
Scanned PDFs (no text layer) cannot be split by text-match without OCR. A scan is just a picture of each page — there's no underlying text for the tool to search, so "wherever this text appears" mode has nothing to match against.
If your PDF is a scan, you can split it right now by page count — for example, every 1 page (if each invoice is a single sheet) or every 2 pages (if each invoice is front-and-back or has an attached remittance slip). That works immediately, no text layer required.
If you need text-aware renaming or splitting from a scan, that requires OCR — planned for our Pro roadmap, not available yet.
How to separate scanned invoices into individual files
The right approach depends on whether your PDF actually has a text layer. Here's how to tell, and what to do either way.
Step 1: Check whether your PDF has a text layer
Open the PDF in any viewer and try to select text on a page — click and drag over a word like you're highlighting a sentence. If a normal text cursor appears and you can highlight and copy the invoice number, it has a text layer. If instead your cursor only draws a selection box around the whole image (or nothing highlights at all), it's a scan with no extractable text.
Most scanner and copier software (and phone scanning apps that don't run OCR) produces pure image PDFs. Software-generated invoices — emailed as PDF from accounting systems like QuickBooks or Xero — almost always have a real text layer, even if they look similar at a glance.
Step 2: Split by the right method for your file
Has a text layer: use "wherever this text appears" mode below, matching something like "Invoice #" that repeats at the top of every invoice.
No text layer (a scan): use "every N pages" mode. Count how many scanned pages make up one invoice — usually 1, sometimes 2 — and enter that number. Every invoice in the batch has to be the same length for this to line up correctly.
Manual option
Open the scan in any PDF reader, note the page ranges by eye, and export or print-to-PDF each range separately. Works for a handful of invoices; becomes tedious past a dozen or so, and every save is a fresh round-trip through the file.
Automated option (this tool)
Set the page count once and every N-page chunk becomes its own file automatically, zipped and downloaded in one step — no manual page-range bookkeeping, and the scan never leaves your browser.
pdf.js to render the
preview and pdf-lib to
assemble each chunk into its own file, both running as JavaScript in this page.
Split your scanned invoices
Free tier: 1 file at a time, up to 30 pages. Text-match mode needs a text layer — page-count mode works on scans.
Drag & drop your scanned invoice PDF here, or click to choose
Up to 30 pages · stays on this device
Preview
Split mode
Need OCR for variable-length scanned invoices?
Free tier splits scans cleanly at a fixed page interval. If your scanned invoices vary in length, text-aware splitting and renaming after OCR is planned for the Pro roadmap — not available yet. For text-layer PDFs today, Pro (in development) already renames each output from extracted text and removes the 30-page cap. One-time $19, no subscription.
See Free vs Pro →Your invoices never leave your browser
PDF SmartSplit has no upload endpoint, no server that touches your document, and no account to leak. Open your browser's network tab while you split a scan — you'll see it stay quiet. Processing uses pdf.js and pdf-lib running as JavaScript in this tab; the zip is built in memory and handed straight to your browser's download dialog.