How do I delete a page from a PDF for free?

Use a free browser tool such as PDFCocoon’s Delete PDF Pages, Preview on a Mac, or the Files app on recent iPhones and iPads. On Windows and Android you can print the pages you want to keep to a new PDF.

Will deleting pages make my PDF smaller?

Usually, if the tool rebuilds the file from the remaining pages. Print-to-PDF workarounds can sometimes make files bigger instead.

Can I get a deleted page back?

Only from your original file. Save the edited PDF as a new copy so the original stays available.

Is covering text with a black box the same as removing it?

No. Covering text in a PDF viewer often leaves it in the file. Delete whole pages, or use a proper redaction tool for parts of a page.

How do I remove blank pages from a scanned PDF?

Open the PDF in a page-deleting tool and look through the page previews for empty pages. In PDFCocoon’s Delete PDF Pages, click each blank page to mark it, then press Delete to download a clean copy.

How to Remove Pages from a PDF for Free

Blank pages from double-sided scanning, an advert at the back of a brochure, the terms and conditions nobody asked for: plenty of PDFs contain pages you’d rather not send. Removing them makes the document easier to read, and often makes the file noticeably smaller too.

Here’s how to delete pages from a PDF for free on any device, and what to watch out for when the pages you’re removing contain sensitive information.

The quickest way: in your browser

PDFCocoon’s Delete PDF Pages tool works on any computer or phone and doesn’t upload your file: it runs entirely in your browser.

Open Delete PDF Pages and drop in your PDF.
Click each page you want to remove (it gets a red cross), or type page numbers such as 2, 9-11.
Check the counter showing how many pages will remain, then press Delete.

The new PDF is built from only the pages you kept. Any images or fonts that were used only on the deleted pages are left out, which is why the file usually gets smaller, sometimes dramatically so for scanned documents.

On a Mac, with Preview

Open the PDF in Preview and choose View → Thumbnails.
Click a page in the sidebar, and Command-click any others you want to remove.
Press the Delete key.
Choose File → Export as PDF to save a new copy, or File → Save to change the original.

Exporting to a new file is the safer habit: if you delete the wrong page, the original is still there.

On an iPhone or iPad

On recent versions of iOS and iPadOS, the Files app can edit PDF pages directly:

Open the PDF in the Files app.
Show the page thumbnails. Depending on your device, swipe in from the left edge or tap the sidebar button.
Touch and hold the page you want to remove, then tap Delete.

The change is saved to the file itself, so duplicate the PDF first (touch and hold it in Files, then Duplicate) if you want to keep the original. If your version of iOS doesn’t show these options, the browser method works in Safari.

On Windows or Android

Windows and Android don’t have a built-in way to delete pages, but there’s a workaround: “print” only the pages you want to keep into a new PDF.

Windows: open the PDF in Microsoft Edge, press Ctrl + P, choose Microsoft Print to PDF, and enter the pages to keep under the custom pages option (for example 1-3, 5-12).
Android: open the PDF in Google Drive or Files, choose Print, select Save as PDF as the printer, and set the page range to the pages you want to keep.

This works for simple documents, but printing redraws every page: links stop working, bookmarks disappear and the file can end up bigger rather than smaller. For anything more than a quick fix, the browser method is easier and keeps the quality.

Deleting, hiding and redacting are not the same thing

If you’re removing pages because they contain private information, it’s worth knowing the difference between these three:

Deleting a page removes it completely from the new file. With PDFCocoon, nothing from the deleted page is kept.
Hiding or covering content, for example drawing a black box over a bank account number in a PDF viewer, often leaves the original text underneath. Anyone can copy it out or remove the box.
Redacting permanently removes specific text or images from a page while keeping the rest. That needs a proper redaction tool.

So if a whole page is sensitive, delete it. If only part of a page is, redact it properly instead of covering it up. And after deleting pages for privacy, check that the same details don’t also appear on a summary or cover page you kept.

Keeping the file small

People often delete pages to get under an email or upload limit. A few tips:

Use a method that rebuilds the file from the remaining pages (like the browser tool), rather than one that only hides pages.
Scanned pages with photos are the heaviest, so removing even one or two can save several megabytes.
If the file is still too big, split it into parts and send them separately.

Related tasks

If you’re keeping only a few pages out of many, it’s quicker to pick those with Extract PDF Pages. And if you also want to reorder or rotate pages while you tidy up, Organize PDF lets you move, turn and remove pages in one place.