What AI Tells Shoppers About Cannabis Prices, and How to Fix It
Data and charts, November 2026, by Vee Popat, ColaDigital
Study page: https://coladigital.ca/ai-cannabis-price-answers-study/

CREDIT: You're welcome to use these numbers and charts. Please credit ColaDigital and link back to the study page above.

WHAT'S HERE
claims_coded.csv      560 prices and deals the AI tools gave us, one row each, graded against the dispensary's own live menu
legal_statements.csv  24 tax and cannabis law statements, 20 graded against state law
reruns_stability.csv  40 repeat questions asked on a later day, graded same, similar or different
chart_engines.png     How the five AI tools compared
chart_questions.png   How each of the four questions did

HOW WE COLLECTED IT
Five AI tools (ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude), four price and deal questions, 20 US cities, answers collected November 11 and 12, 2026. We checked each price or deal against the dispensary's own live menu or deals page the same day.

GRADES
MATCH: within $0.50 or 2% of the menu price
CLOSE: within 15% or $3, or a minor difference in the offer
WRONG: the menu showed something different
NOT CHECKABLE: the page we could read didn't show that product, or the menu was gated, in-store only or only partly read. These are never counted as right or wrong
NO ANSWER: the AI declined or gave nothing we could grade

QUESTIONS
Q6: Which dispensary has the cheapest weed in the city
Q7: Which dispensary has the best deals in the city
Q8: How much is the cheapest eighth at a named dispensary
Q9: What is the first-time customer deal at a named dispensary

DISPENSARY NAMES
We removed dispensary names and menu text from this file, because negative findings never name a dispensary. dispensary_status_code shows OK, WRONG CITY, WRONG LOCATION, WRONG STATE or LOOKALIKE NOTED.

LIMITS
Prices change daily, and we often read only the first page of a long menu. Read the full list of limits on the study page.