The PuffPrice Index is a weekly benchmark for what Illinois flower actually costs right now — a single price-per-gram number pulled from the active deals we track.
Every active flower deal with a posted price gets normalized to a price-per-gram using standard weight conversions: an eighth is 3.5g, a quarter is 7g, a half is 14g, and an ounce is 28g. Pre-rolls and infused products are excluded — only loose flower counts toward the Index.
We trim prices outside a plausible range (below $0 or above $100 per gram) so a data-entry typo can't pull the average. The remaining prices are averaged; that average is the Index for the week.
We only publish the Index when we have at least 10 qualifying deals in the sample. Fewer than that and the number isn't stable enough to be useful — one $4 eighth or one $60 gram would swing it. Until we cross the threshold, the homepage shows a progress bar instead of a fake number.
The Index answers one question: is the deal I'm looking at a good one? If a dispensary is advertising flower at $12/g and the Index is $7.80/g, you know the "deal" isn't really a deal. If it's $5/g, you know to grab it.
We rebuild the Index every week so it tracks the real market — not a snapshot from six months ago.
We will never round up a sample size. We will never publish an Index from fewer than 10 deals. If we can't calculate it honestly, we won't publish it — that's why you see a progress bar instead of a placeholder number. More about how we work →