Sitemap splitter
Cut one oversized sitemap or URL list into protocol-sized files, by count or by site section, and get the sitemap index that ties them together.
Used for the <loc> entries in the index.
The limits, and why files get split
The sitemaps.org protocol caps each sitemap at 50,000 URLs and 50 MB (52,428,800 bytes) uncompressed. Google’s large-sitemap guidance applies the same limits and says to use a sitemap index for more. An index can list up to 50,000 sitemaps, and you can submit up to 500 index files per site in Search Console.
Which limit bites first?
Drag the sliders. Each file may hold 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed; whichever you hit first sets the number of files.
4 sitemap files plus one sitemap index, about 6.4 MB each. The 50,000-URL limit decides: at ~150 bytes per entry a full file is only 7.2 MB.
Gzip does not change the arithmetic: Google applies the 50 MB limit to the uncompressed file.
For almost every real site the URL count is what forces the split: at typical URL lengths a 50,000-URL file is well under 10 MB. The size limit only matters when entries are very long or carry many image, video or hreflang extensions.
More on how index files work in the sitemap index guide.
Questions
How do I split a sitemap into multiple files?
Load the large sitemap (or a plain list of URLs), choose how many URLs per file, enter the public folder where the files will live, and press Split. You get numbered sitemap files and a sitemap index that lists them, as individual downloads.
When do I have to split a sitemap?
When a file would exceed 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed, the limits in the sitemaps.org protocol that Google also applies. Some sites split earlier, by section or at 10,000 URLs, so Search Console reports indexing per smaller file.
Should I split by section instead of by count?
Often, yes. Splitting by top-level folder (products, blog, categories) makes Search Console’s per-sitemap indexing numbers far more useful. Choose “By section” and each folder gets its own file, still capped at your per-file limit.
Where do I submit the result?
Upload all files, then submit only the sitemap index in Search Console and reference it in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line. Google reads the child sitemaps from the index.