How to Extract Pages from a PDF on Mac, Windows & iPhone

Sometimes you only need part of a PDF: the signature page of a contract, one month from a year of bank statements, or a single chapter of a report. Sending the whole file is clumsy, makes attachments bigger than they need to be, and can share information the recipient has no business seeing.

The good news is that you don’t need paid software to pull pages out of a PDF. Below are the quickest free methods for every device, plus a quick comparison so you can pick the right one.

The quickest way on any device: in your browser

The fastest method that works the same on a Mac, a Windows PC, a Chromebook, an iPhone or an Android phone is a browser-based tool. Our free Extract PDF Pages tool runs entirely inside your browser, so your file is never uploaded anywhere.

1. Open Extract PDF Pages and drop your PDF onto the page (or tap to choose it).
2. Click the pages you want to keep, or type them, for example 1-3, 7.
3. Press Extract. A new PDF containing only those pages downloads immediately.

Because the pages are copied rather than printed, text stays selectable and searchable and images keep their full quality. You can also type pages in a different order, such as 7, 1-3, to rearrange them as you extract.

On a Mac, with Preview

Preview, the PDF viewer built into every Mac, can extract pages in two ways.

Drag pages out of the sidebar

1. Open the PDF in Preview and choose View → Thumbnails to show the page sidebar.
2. Click the first page you want, then hold Command and click any others.
3. Drag the selected thumbnails onto your desktop or into a Finder window. Preview creates a new PDF containing just those pages.

This keeps the pages’ quality intact and is very quick once you’re used to it. Rename the new file before you send it, since Preview gives it a generic name.

Print the pages to a new PDF

1. Choose File → Print.
2. Under Pages, enter a range (for example from 4 to 9), or select pages in the sidebar first and choose “Selected Pages in Sidebar”.
3. Open the PDF menu in the bottom corner of the print window and choose Save as PDF.

Printing re-creates the pages, so links inside the document usually stop working. It’s fine for simple documents but not ideal for anything interactive.

On Windows, with Microsoft Edge

Windows doesn’t include a dedicated PDF editor, but Microsoft Edge (the default PDF viewer on Windows 10 and 11) can print selected pages to a new PDF:

1. Open the PDF in Edge and press Ctrl + P.
2. Set the printer to Microsoft Print to PDF.
3. Under Pages, choose the custom option and type the pages you want, such as 2-5, 8.
4. Click Print, then choose a name and folder for the new file.

As with any print-based method, links and bookmarks are lost and the file can come out larger than expected. If you have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, note that its page-organizing tools, including extracting pages, are part of the paid Acrobat subscription.

On an iPhone or iPad

iOS has a well-hidden trick that turns any document into a new PDF through the print screen:

1. Open the PDF (in Files, Mail or Safari) and tap the Share button.
2. Choose Print, then tap Range and select the pages you want.
3. Tap the Share button at the top of the print options and choose Save to Files.

The exact wording moves around a little between iOS versions. If you can’t find it, the browser method above works in Safari on any iPhone or iPad: tap the pages you want and download.

On an Android phone

1. Open the PDF in the Google Drive or Files app and choose Print from the menu.
2. Change the printer at the top to Save as PDF.
3. Open the options, change Pages from “All” to a range, and enter the pages you want.
4. Tap the PDF download button and save the new file.

Which method should you use?

• Browser tool: the same steps on every device, keeps full quality, lets you choose the page order. Best all-rounder.
• Mac Preview (drag): excellent if you’re on a Mac and comfortable with the sidebar.
• Print to PDF (Windows, iPhone, Android): built in, but links break, files can grow, and choosing scattered pages is fiddly.

Common problems and fixes

“It asks for a password”

If the PDF is protected, you’ll need the password to open it. Open it in your PDF reader, then save or print an unprotected copy and extract pages from that.

“The links in my extract don’t work”

Print-based methods redraw the pages and drop interactive features. Use a method that copies pages instead, such as Preview’s drag method or a browser tool.

“I need each section as a separate file”

Extracting gives you one new PDF. To get several files at once, such as one per chapter, use Split PDF with custom ranges.

“I only want to drop a couple of pages”

If you’re keeping almost everything, it’s quicker to remove the unwanted pages with Delete PDF Pages.