How to insert a tab character in sublime text?

Pressing Shift + Tab doesn't insert a literal tab for me in Sublime Text 3.

The only way for me to insert a literal tab is doing the following things:

• First, I disable the Indent Using Spaces option via menu View → Indentation.
• Then, press Tab to insert a literal tab.

After you're done, switch back the option.

You can also click on the cell of the status bar which says Spaces: n or Tab Size: n, and switch the Indent Using Spaces option there.

Do you find the word completion feature helpful? If not then turn it off and I'm sure that will fix your problem.

Alternatively if you press shift+tab then that will insert a literal tab.

Or you can disable tab completion by adding this line to Preferences/File Settings - User:

"tab_completion": false

Source

If you want to use a tab in search/replace, just type a tab on a new line ("Indent using spaces" disabled), select and cut and then paste into either search or replace field.

Thought I'd add this in case anyone found this question like me searching for this option.