The invention relates to a device for breaking off piles, said device being provided with a frame and at least one cutter which is movable to and fro in its longitudinal direction by means of a setting cylinder supported by the frame. The cutter is guided in an elongated passage, whose boundary wall is shaped such that at at least one location between the boundary wall of the passage and the outer circumference of the cutter there is present a recess extending in the longitudinal direction of the cutter and being open at both sides.