Free PDF Page Deleter: Delete Pages from PDF Online

Let's be real — sometimes you just need to delete a few pages from a PDF. Maybe you scanned a 20-page document but pages 7 and 14 came out blurry. Maybe you're sharing a report with a client but you want to remove the internal notes page. Or maybe there's that one blank page at the beginning that drives you crazy every time you open it.

Whatever the reason, deleting pages from a PDF shouldn't require paid software or a degree in computer science. Let me show you how to do it quickly, for free, right in your browser.

Method 1: PeacefulPDF (My Top Pick)

PeacefulPDF's page deletion tool is exactly what you need. It's free, browser-based, and processes everything locally — your PDF never leaves your computer.

Here's what makes it great:

• Visual thumbnail view — you see every page before deleting
• No uploads — everything happens in your browser
• Free — no payment, no signup
• Fast — takes seconds for typical documents

I've used this tool probably hundreds of times at this point. The thumbnail view is a game-changer — you can actually see what you're deleting instead of guessing from page numbers. I don't know about you, but I can't remember what's on page 15 of a 50-page document.

How to use it:

1. Go to PeacefulPDF's Delete Pages tool
2. Upload your PDF (drag and drop or click to browse)
3. You'll see thumbnails of every page
4. Click the pages you want to remove (they'll be highlighted)
5. Click "Delete Selected Pages"
6. Download your cleaned PDF

That's it. The whole process takes maybe 30 seconds for a typical document. I just used it last week to remove 5 blank pages from a scanned contract — quick and painless.

Method 2: Preview on Mac

If you're on a Mac, you already have a perfectly good PDF page deleter built in. Preview has been able to delete pages for years, and it works great.

Here's how:

1. Open your PDF in Preview
2. Show the sidebar (View > Thumbnails or press Cmd+Alt+1)
3. Click on the page(s) you want to delete
4. Press the Delete key
5. Save (File > Save or Cmd+S)

Quick tips:

• Hold Command and click multiple pages to select them all at once
• Click one page, then Shift-click another to select a range
• Use Edit > Undo (Cmd+Z) if you delete the wrong page before you save

One thing to watch out for: Preview saves changes to the original file by default. If you want to keep the original intact, use File > Export as PDF to create a new copy first. I've made this mistake before — deleted pages from a document I needed, then realized those pages were important. Thankfully I had a backup, but lesson learned.

Preview is my go-to for quick page deletions when I'm at my Mac. For anything more involved or when I need to share the tool with someone who doesn't have a Mac, I use the browser-based approach.

Method 3: Adobe Acrobat (If You Have It)

If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro, it can delete pages too. The interface is nice — you get a thumbnail view similar to Preview, and you can delete individual pages or ranges.

Go to Tools > Organize Pages, select the pages you want to remove, and hit the delete key. Simple.

But here's the thing — if you're paying $20/month for Acrobat just to delete pages, you're overpaying. The free options work just as well for this specific task. Acrobat is great for a lot of things, but page deletion isn't one of them where it's uniquely better than free alternatives.

Method 4: Google Chrome (Surprising Trick)

Here's a trick that not many people know about. You can use Chrome's print function to effectively "delete" pages from a PDF.

The trick is simple: instead of deleting pages, you print only the pages you want to keep.

1. Open your PDF in Chrome (drag and drop it into a new tab)
2. Press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac)
3. In the "Pages" field, type the pages you want to keep (e.g., "1-5, 8-12" to skip pages 6-7)
4. Set the destination to "Save as PDF"
5. Click Print

The result is a new PDF containing only the pages you specified. This effectively deletes the pages you didn't list.

It's a bit of a workaround, but it works surprisingly well and you don't need any special tools. The downside is you have to think in terms of which pages to keep rather than which to delete, which can be confusing for large documents.

Also, Chrome's print-to-PDF sometimes introduces tiny formatting changes. For most documents it's fine, but if you need pixel-perfect preservation, use a dedicated PDF tool instead.

Method 5: Command Line (pdftk)

For the terminal enthusiasts, pdftk (PDF Toolkit) is a classic command-line tool for PDF manipulation, including page deletion.

Basic syntax:

pdftk input.pdf delete_page1 delete_page5-7 output output.pdf

Or you can specify what to keep:

pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 10-end output output.pdf

This keeps pages 1-5 and everything from page 10 onward, effectively deleting pages 6-9.

pdftk is free, available on Linux, Mac (via Homebrew: brew install pdftk), and Windows. It's fast, reliable, and doesn't alter the content of pages — it just removes them cleanly.

I don't use this daily, but when I need to delete pages from a PDF as part of a script or batch process, pdftk is invaluable.

Deleting vs. Removing: What's the Difference?

Let me clarify some terminology because people often confuse these terms:

Deleting pages removes specific pages from a PDF. The remaining pages stay in one document.

Splitting a PDF divides a PDF into multiple separate files. (Say, taking a 20-page PDF and making 20 individual single-page PDFs.)

Extracting pages pulls out specific pages and saves them as a new file, while keeping the original intact.

The tool you're using should be clear about which action it's performing. Most page deletion tools (including PeacefulPDF) give you a new file with the specified pages removed, leaving the original untouched.

Common Page Deletion Scenarios

Here are the situations where I most commonly need to delete pages:

Scanned Documents

You scanned a document and some pages came out poorly (blurry, crooked, duplicate). Delete the bad pages, keep the good ones. If you need to replace them, merge in new scans of just those pages.

Removing Blank Pages

PDFs often have random blank pages that got inserted during scanning, merging, or PDF generation. These are easy to spot in thumbnail view and delete.

Sharing Partial Documents

You have a 50-page report but a client only needs chapters 2 and 3. Delete everything else and send them just what they need.

Removing Cover Pages

Many generated PDFs have unnecessary cover pages, disclaimers, or blank separator pages. Delete them and get to the actual content faster.

Privacy

Your PDF contains a page with personal information you don't want to share. Delete it before forwarding. (For truly sensitive information, also consider proper redaction.)

What About Links and Bookmarks?

Important question: when you delete pages, what happens to internal links and bookmarks?

In most cases, they break. If your PDF has a table of contents with clickable links to specific pages, and you delete page 12, that link now points to the wrong content. The same goes for bookmarks.

This is an unfortunate limitation of PDF editing. Most tools don't automatically update internal links when you delete pages. For simple documents without navigation features, it's not an issue. For complex documents with lots of cross-references, be careful about which pages you remove.

Recovering Deleted Pages

Made a mistake? Here's what you can do:

• If you haven't saved yet: Just close without saving and reopen the original. In Preview on Mac, you can use Edit > Undo (Cmd+Z) to undo deletions before saving.
• If you saved over the original: The deleted pages are likely gone. This is why I always recommend keeping the original file until you're sure you don't need it.
• Using browser tools: Tools like PeacefulPDF never modify your original file — you always download a new one. So your original is automatically preserved.

Pro tip: before deleting pages from an important document, make a quick copy. Rename it "document_ORIGINAL.pdf" and keep it somewhere safe. Storage is cheap. Redoing work is expensive.

Quick Summary

• Easiest method: PeacefulPDF's Delete Pages tool — visual thumbnails, browser-based, no uploads
• Mac users: Preview — built in, fast, works great
• Chrome trick: Print only the pages you want to keep
• Command line: pdftk for scripting and automation
• Always keep the original until you've verified the result

Deleting pages from a PDF is one of those tasks that's way simpler than people expect. The tools have gotten really good, and you don't need paid software anymore. Give the browser-based option a try — I think you'll be surprised how easy it is.