Which Cannabis Strains Give You the Best Bud for Your Buck?

With thousands of cannabis strains to choose from, it can often feel overwhelming choosing a variety you’ll enjoy that won’t cost a lot of money. Do some cannabis strains give you a better bang for your buck than their high-priced alternatives? We dove into our data to find out.

After analyzing all of the strains in our database, we came up with a list of the best reasonably priced options. The criteria for our list included the following requirements:

• The strains must be equal to or lower than a median price of $12.88 per gram
• Strains must have at least 100 user reviews and a median rating of 4.3 or higher to indicate popularity and general quality
• Strains must be available on at least 50 dispensary menus, indicating decent availability

With those parameters in mind, we charted the results of our data dive.

According to our research, the best budget-friendly strains are:

• Blue Magoo
• Pennywise
• G13
• Blue Diesel
• Obama Kush
• MK Ultra
• Critical Kush
• White Widow
• Death Star
• LSD
• ACDC
• Alaskan Thunder Fuck
• Chernobyl
• Cherry Pie
• Bruce Banner
• Alien OG
• Pineapple Express

These are all strains that are priced somewhat lower than other options on dispensary menus (both recreational and medical) across the country. Generally, solid mid-shelf strain options are priced at about $13 – $15 per gram, with prices occasionally creeping past $15 depending on the dispensary (although going above $15/gram won’t necessarily bring you more potent or higher-quality cannabis).

Price-Conscious Hybrids are Popular

The most popular varieties on this list are ones I’m sure you’ve heard of: White Widow, Chernobyl, Cherry Pie, and Pineapple Express all enjoy strong menu availability and a large number of user reviews. These varieties, like many of the other options we pulled, are hybrid strains, which is not terribly surprising. Pure strains can be hard to come by these days with the increasing availability of so many hybrid crosses. Jeremiah, our resident strain researcher and former budtender, argues that hybrid popularity isn’t necessarily a bad thing, pointing out that hybrids can breed fantastic combinations such as Cherry Pie, which, in his words, “encapsulates disparate elements in one helluva package.”

Be on the Lookout for These Crowd-Pleasers

Some of the strains on this list are crowd-pleasers that are on a lower number of menus compared to the popular hybrids listed above, but have a high rating and disproportionately large number of reviews. If you pop into a dispensary and see G13, MK Ultra, Critical Kush, Alaskan Thunder Fuck, Bruce Banner, or Alien OG on display, you may want to give them a try.

Want a Reasonably Priced CBD Strain?

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly high-CBD strain, ACDC is the one most likely to leave you thunderstruck. It’s the lone CBD option on this list, indicating that it could be friendlier to your wallet than other higher-priced CBD-specific strains.

Business Takeaways

If you’re a dispensary manager, you might want to look into procuring some of these budget strains, as they’re all consumer favorites. Despite being lower-priced than mainstays like Blue Dream or the latest big Cannabis Cup winner, stocking what people like at attractive prices will keep them coming back for repeat transactions. Plus, if you can get your hands on some of the crowd-pleasers we outlined above, you’re potentially widening your clientele, as those strains have a growing fan base.

Of course, for you consumers out there, our data suggests these strains tend to trend on the cheaper side, but pricing is ultimately determined by the dispensary, so you may end up seeing some of these varieties priced differently than what we’ve charted. Let us know what are some of your favorite budget buds in your area and we’ll see how your picks compare to our data!