100% in your browser — files never uploaded

Split a PDF by bookmark — one file per section.

Long reports, manuals, and ebooks are usually bookmarked by section in the sidebar of a PDF viewer, but there's no simple button to turn each bookmarked section into its own file. PDF SmartSplit gets you there by matching the same heading text your bookmarks point to — entirely in this browser tab, nothing uploaded.

Split by bookmark free → See how it works

No signup. No install. Free for files up to 30 pages.

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Wait — this doesn't read your PDF's embedded bookmark tree yet

The free tool below doesn't parse the outline/bookmarks panel data itself — that's a separate structure from the page content, and reading it is on our Pro roadmap, not shipped yet.

Here's the good news: almost every document that has bookmarks also prints that same heading as visible text on the page the bookmark points to — a chapter title, a section number, a report heading. Match on that printed text instead, and you get the same result: one file per bookmarked section.

How to split a PDF by bookmark today

Three steps, using the heading text your bookmarks already point to instead of the bookmark data structure itself.

Open the bookmarks panel

In your PDF viewer's sidebar, open the bookmarks/outline panel and click through a few entries to confirm the exact heading text printed at the top of each section — copy it if you can.

Drop the PDF in below

Switch to "wherever this text appears" mode and paste in that heading text. It loads into your browser's memory only — nothing is uploaded.

Download one zip, one PDF per section

A new file starts every time that heading text shows up on a page — so sections of any length come out correctly.

When this doesn't work as well: if your bookmark labels were typed by hand and don't match any text actually printed on the page (common in scanned or manually-organized PDFs), there's nothing on the page for text-match mode to find. In that case, "every N pages" mode is your fallback if sections happen to be a consistent length, or note the page ranges by eye in your viewer's bookmark panel and split manually. Honest limitation: like every mode here, this needs a real, selectable text layer — not a scanned page. PDF SmartSplit uses pdf.js to read the text and pdf-lib to assemble each section's pages into their own file, both running as JavaScript in this page.

Split your bookmarked PDF

Free tier: 1 file at a time, up to 30 pages. Text-layer PDFs only (no scanned/OCR yet).

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Drag & drop your bookmarked PDF here, or click to choose

Up to 30 pages · stays on this device

Want us to read your actual bookmark tree?

Splitting directly from a PDF's embedded outline — at any nesting level, without needing matching page text — is planned for the Pro roadmap, alongside content-aware renaming, multi-file batch processing, and unlimited pages. Not shipped yet, but it's next.

See Free vs Pro →

Your document never leaves 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 file — 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.