How to Split a PDF by Text Using PDF.co and Zapier

4 Minutes Read

This tutorial shows how to split a PDF whenever specified text appears. We will use a sample PDF containing three invoices and create a separate PDF for each invoice.

Prerequisites

You will need:

A PDF.co account
A Zapier account
A PDF containing consistent text that identifies the beginning of each document
A trigger app that provides the PDF file or a direct, publicly accessible file URL

IN THIS TUTORIAL

Set Up the Trigger

Add the PDF.co Action

Configure the Split

Test the Action

Save or Send the Split PDFs

Step 1: Set Up the Trigger

Create a Zap and select the app that supplies the source PDF. For example, use Google Drive with the New File in Folder trigger.

Connect your account, select the folder containing incoming PDFs, and test the trigger with a sample file.

Step 2: Add the PDF.co Action

Add another step to the Zap:

App: PDF.co
Action: Split PDF Based on Text Search

Connect your PDF.co account by signing in and authorizing Zapier.

Step 3: Configure the Split

Complete the PDF.co action with the following settings:

PDF URL: Map the downloadable PDF file from the trigger. You can also enter the sample PDF URL.
Text to Search: Enter Invoice Number.
Case Sensitive: Select False.
Use Regular Expressions: Select False.
Exclude Pages With Found Text: Select False so the pages containing the identifying text remain in the output documents.
OCR Language: Select English, or choose the language used in your scanned PDF.

Whenever PDF.co finds the specified text, it treats that page as the beginning of a new output document.

For additional field descriptions, see the PDF.co Split PDF by Text documentation.

Step 4: Test the Action

Test the PDF.co step. The sample document should produce three output PDF URLs—one for each invoice.

Open the returned URLs and confirm that the PDF was divided at the correct pages.

Step 5: Save or Send the Split PDFs

PDF.co output URLs are temporary. Add another Zapier action if the files need to remain available, such as:

Upload File in Google Drive
Upload File in Dropbox
Send Email in Gmail
Create a record in another storage or business application

When PDF.co returns multiple URLs, use Looping by Zapier to process each output file separately before saving or sending it.

Conclusion

You have created a Zap that identifies recurring text inside a PDF and splits the document at each occurrence. This workflow is useful for separating invoices, statements, forms, and other combined documents automatically.