Where is the Cheapest Pre-Roll in America?

Pre-rolls have officially moved on from being a convenience product and into being one of the most important growth categories in cannabis. In 2025, pre-rolls sold more units than any other product category on the market, including flower and vapes, marking a major shift in consumer behavior for convenient flower products that has been building for years.

And that shift is clearly observed in pricing. As markets mature and competition increases, the cost of pre-rolls, especially at the low end of the pricing scale, continue to fall. The average equalized price of a pre-roll in 2025 was $5.95 per gram, but that number doesn’t tell the full story. On a per-unit basis, you can now find pre-rolls for under $1 per unit in mature markets like Michigan, while in early-stage markets like Connecticut, the cheapest pre-rolls still sit around $12 per unit.

This report focuses specifically on the lowest-priced pre-rolls in each state, broken out by segment and package size. We looked at average pre-roll unit prices and the average equalized price per gram so we could get a clearer picture of where true value exists in the market for producers, and which states have already experienced price compression versus those early-markets still working toward it.

Which States Have the Cheapest Pre-Rolls Overall

The cheapest pre-roll state markets in the U.S. are not surprising, they are the most mature and most competitive. Michigan - who outsells California in unit sales with a quarter of the population - leads by a wide margin, with brands like Dragonfly Cannabis dropping prices on pre-rolls to around $0.50 per gram (equalized pricing) across multiple categories, an extreme outlier compared to the rest of the country.

Oregon and Washington, with markets open for over 10 years, follow closely behind. Oregon’s lowest-priced product sits at $0.90 per gram, while Washington consistently delivers products in the mid-$2 range across multiple segments, sitting around an equalized cost of around $0.80 on the low end. These markets have had many years of supply and resource growth, strong competition and operational optimization, all of which contribute to lower prices on dispensary shelves.

On the other end, newer markets like New York remain more expensive. New York’s cheapest product is still nearly $6, while more mature East Coast markets like Massachusetts sit well around $3 low end. These states are earlier in their lifecycles, with tighter supply, higher costs and less competition driving pricing down.

The cheapest products in Michigan, Oregon and Washington are retailing far below the industry average, while newer state markets in the Northeast are still well above it. This split is one of the clearest indicators of where each market stands in terms of maturity.

Brands Dominating the Budget Segment

Low-cost supremacy is not evenly distributed across brands. In most states, a small number of operators dominate the value market, and they tend to show up repeatedly across multiple pre-roll categories.

Michigan’s Dragonfly Cannabis is the clearest example. Dragonfly Cannabis appears across nearly every low-cost category: cheapest overall, indica, sativa, hybrid, and even infused. That level of consistency points to a brand built around volume and efficiency rather than premium positioning. This aligns with broader market data, where Dragonfly leads the country in units sold while maintaining one of the lowest average prices per product.

Washington shows a similar pattern with Phat Panda, which appears across multiple low-cost segments including single pre-rolls and multipacks. In Arizona, Cheech & Chong’s Yesca line in particular shows up multiple times in the cheapest categories, indicating a targeted value strategy backed by recognizable branding.

What stands out is that budget leaders are rarely premium-first brands. Instead, they are operators built to scale, focusing on strong throughput, efficiency and consistency. In a category where price continues to fall, these brands are well positioned to compete long term.

Key Insights and Market Trends

The most obvious trend across the data is price compression, especially in mature markets. In states like Michigan and Oregon, standard pre-rolls have become highly commoditized, with minimal differentiation at the lowest price points. This aligns with broader industry feedback, where more than half of operators cite oversupply and price competition as the biggest threats to the category.

At the same time, infused pre-rolls continue to hold a pricing premium – and consumers love infused pre-rolls. Even in the lowest-cost markets, infused products are consistently priced above traditional pre-rolls on a per-gram basis. This reflects both higher input costs through the addition of concentrates and continued consumer demand for potency. However, the gap is starting to narrow in more competitive states, suggesting that even the premium Infused segment may face pressure over time.

Multi-packs continue to play a major role in the value conversation. In 2025, nearly half of all pre-roll products were sold in multi-pack formats, and they dominated top-selling product lists. However, they don’t always represent the cheapest option on an equalized per-gram basis. In some markets, multi-packs offer strong bulk value pricing, while in others they remain expensive due to material supply, packaging and brand positioning. This makes equalized pricing critical when comparing products across formats.

A key takeaway is how closely pricing tracks with market maturity. States with longer legalization periods and higher license counts consistently show lower prices, while newer markets are following a similar path, just in earlier stages. As supply increases and competition intensifies, further price compression is expected across these markets.