Split a Large PDF for Email Free (Parts That Fit)

When a PDF is too big to email, split the PDF by size: cut it into parts that each fit under the attachment limit, then send them as "Part 1 of 3", "Part 2 of 3" and so on. The free PDF splitter cuts by page ranges rather than by size, so the trick is to estimate how many pages fit in each part, split, then check the sizes. It takes a couple of minutes, it's free, and your PDF is never uploaded.

Know your limit first

Email services cap the size of a message, and the cap covers all attachments together. As per Google's Gmail Help (2026), personal Gmail accounts can send attachments up to 25 MB. Outlook and other providers set their own limits, which differ by account type. Work and school accounts of any provider are set by their administrator, and the recipient's mail server can have a lower limit than yours. Check your provider's current help page.

Two more things eat into the limit:

• Encoding overhead. Attachments are encoded for sending, which makes them roughly a third larger in transit, and some mail servers count that encoded size. A 20 MB file can be too big for a 25 MB limit.
• Everything in the message. Several attachments, a signature image and a long reply thread all count.

A safe target: aim for parts no bigger than about 15 MB for a 25 MB limit, and about 12 MB for a 20 MB limit. If you're not sure of the recipient's limit, 10 MB parts almost always get through.

Split a PDF by size: work out the page ranges

The splitter shows your PDF's page count and file size when you choose it. Use them to estimate:

1. Size per page = file size ÷ page count.
2. Pages per part = target part size ÷ size per page, rounded down.
3. Number of parts = page count ÷ pages per part, rounded up.

Worked example. A 120-page scanned PDF is 54 MB, and you're sending from Gmail with a 15 MB target per part:

• Size per page: 54 ÷ 120 = 0.45 MB.
• Pages per part: 15 ÷ 0.45 = 33.3, so 33 pages.
• Parts: 120 ÷ 33 = 3.6, so 4 parts.

Spreading the pages evenly over 4 parts gives 30 pages each: 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120. Each part should come to about 13.5 MB.

That assumes pages are similar in size. In a document with a few photo-heavy pages (say, a report with a colour appendix), those pages are far bigger than text pages, so leave extra room or give the photo pages their own part.

Split it

1. Open the free PDF splitter and choose your PDF (up to 100 MB).
2. Under What do you want?, choose A PDF for each range.
3. In Pages, type your ranges, like 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-. The last range can end with a dash to mean "to the end".
4. Click Split PDF, then Download N PDFs (ZIP).

The parts come together in one ZIP file, named like report-pages-1-30.pdf and report-pages-31-60.pdf. The ZIP shows its total size next to the download button, which tells you the parts add up to about the original.

Check, adjust, send

1. Unzip the download and look at each part's size in your file manager (on Windows, File Explorer's Size column; on a Mac, Finder's list view; on a phone, the file's details).
2. If one part is over the target, split again with that part's range cut in two, for example 61-75, 76-90 instead of 61-90.
3. Rename the parts so the order is obvious: Report-part-1-of-4.pdf and so on.
4. Send one email per part, with the same subject plus "(1 of 4)". Mention in the first email how many parts are coming.

Don't zip the parts back together before attaching. Zipping barely shrinks a PDF, and one ZIP with all parts would be as big as the original.

When splitting isn't the best answer

• The PDF is mostly scans or photos. Compressing it may get it under the limit in one file. Compress PDF shrinks the images inside while keeping text sharp. It's free for PDFs up to 50 pages; files are uploaded, deleted once compressed, and the result is kept for 1 hour. See how to compress a PDF for email and why is my PDF so big?
• The recipient wants one file. Share a link from a cloud drive instead of attaching; our roundup on sending large files for free covers options.
• The recipient only needs some pages. Send just those with One PDF with these pages, as in extracting pages from a PDF.

Can the recipient put the parts back together? Yes: the free PDF merger combines them into the original order in one step, and nothing is lost, because splitting copies pages exactly. Our guide to splitting a PDF into separate files covers the splitter's other options.

Split your PDF now

Open the free PDF splitter, type page ranges that keep each part under your email limit, and download the parts. It's free, needs no sign-up, and your PDF stays on your device.