For Licensed Dispensaries and Grows
AI Video Analytics for Cannabis Dispensary Video Monitoring That Finds the Clip, Flags the Vault and Keeps the Record Unbroken
Your license already makes you record every register, door and storage room around the clock. Surveillant runs on those same cameras and makes the footage work: search it in plain English when the regulator calls, get alerted when the vault opens at 2am, and know the minute a camera stops recording.
Runs on the RTSP and ONVIF cameras already in the store. Nothing to install on site.
Four published plans: Starter $49 for 1 camera, Plus $149 for 2, Pro $449 for 6, Elite $1,499 for 20.
What does AI video analytics do for a cannabis dispensary?
It turns the continuous footage your license already forces you to record into something you can search and act on. Staff can find a transaction, a person or a door event by typing a plain-English description, get a real-time alert when a vault or limited-access room opens after hours, and learn the moment a camera drops offline, before the outage becomes a gap in the retention record.
That distinction matters because cannabis is the one retail category where the camera system exists for the regulator first and the owner second. California's Department of Cannabis Control requires 24/7 recording at a minimum of 1280 by 720 pixels and 15 frames per second, kept for 90 days. Colorado sets 40 days, Michigan and Illinois commonly 30. So every licensed store is already sitting on weeks of video from a dozen or more cameras, and almost nobody watches it until something goes wrong.
What goes wrong is predictable. A regulator asks for every visit to the vault on a given Tuesday. A budtender's drawer comes up short. A camera over the back door died three weeks ago and nobody noticed, which is now a compliance finding of its own. Analytics is aimed squarely at those three moments. It does not replace the compliant recorder your integrator certified, and you should not let any vendor tell you otherwise. It sits beside it.
What It Watches For
Six Jobs Dispensary Managers Actually Use It For
Each of these runs on cameras you already have, set up per camera from the dashboard in plain English rather than by drawing zones in a vendor tool.
Answer regulator requests fast
Type "person entering the vault room between 2pm and 4pm Tuesday" and get the clips. The request that used to cost a manager an afternoon of scrubbing becomes a ten-minute job.
After-hours vault and grow room alerts
A person in the vault, the cultivation room or the waste area outside operating hours triggers a real-time alert with the clip attached, sent to whoever is on call.
Offline-camera warnings
A stream that stops is flagged the same day. In a state where any missing stretch inside the retention window is a violation, catching a dead camera early is worth more than any detection.
Loitering at the entrance and lot
Someone lingering by the door or a car idling in the lot after close is flagged before it turns into a robbery attempt or a complaint from the neighbors.
Cash room and register-area review
Find every time the safe was opened or someone stood behind the counter with no customer present. This works from video alone; it does not read your POS data.
Every store on one screen
Multi-license operators see all dispensaries and grows in one dashboard, with the same rules applied everywhere, so compliance does not depend on which manager is on shift.
Does AI video analytics replace a compliant dispensary camera system?
No. Your state regulator sets the recording standard and your recorder or VMS has to meet it. Surveillant runs on top of those same cameras and makes the footage usable. Keep the compliant recording in place and add analytics beside it. The table shows who owns which obligation.
| Requirement | What the rule asks for | Who handles it | Where analytics helps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retention | California 90 days, Colorado 40, Michigan and Illinois commonly 30, unbroken | Your compliant recorder or VMS | Offline-camera alerts catch the outage that would create a gap |
| Resolution and frame rate | California: 1280 by 720 minimum, 15 fps minimum. Colorado: identify a face at 20 feet | Camera choice and placement by your integrator | None. Analytics cannot add pixels a camera never captured |
| Coverage | Every POS station, entrance, exit, storage and limited-access area | Your integrator and your security plan | After-hours alerts on the rooms the rule cares most about |
| Producing footage on request | Hand the regulator or law enforcement the requested clip promptly | Store manager or compliance lead | Plain-English search finds the clip in minutes |
| Transaction matching | Not a video rule, but the first thing asked after a shortage | POS-linked video platforms | Video-only review of the register area; no POS data read |
State figures above are the ones we can tie to a state cannabis authority. Rules are revised often, so confirm yours before you certify a build. Our cannabis dispensary security camera requirements by state guide covers the detail, and the security camera footage retention guide explains how to size storage for an unbroken window.
How a Dispensary Gets Running in One Afternoon
No integrator visit and no change to the certified camera layout. The steps below are the whole deployment.
01
Create the account
Pick the plan that matches your camera count. A single store with up to 20 cameras sits on Elite.
02
Add the camera streams
Paste the RTSP address from each camera or from your NVR. Your recorder keeps recording exactly as before.
03
Write the rules
"Alert me if anyone is in the vault room after 10pm." One sentence per rule, per camera, no zone drawing.
04
Route the alerts
Send after-hours events to the owner, offline-camera warnings to the compliance lead, and keep search open to managers.
How much does AI video analytics cost for a dispensary?
Surveillant publishes its price: $49 to $75 per camera per month on four fixed plans, with no appliance to buy. A typical single-store dispensary with up to 20 cameras fits the Elite plan at $1,499 per month. The table puts that beside the other ways cannabis operators buy video intelligence, including where another option is the better call.
| Option | How it is priced | Hardware | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surveillant | $49 to $75 per camera per month, published | None; runs on existing cameras | Search, after-hours alerts and camera uptime across one or many stores |
| Solink | Commonly cited around $175 per location per month (third-party figure) | Works with existing cameras | Operators who want every POS transaction linked to its clip. Solink wins that job |
| Verkada | Licence roughly $15 to $20 per camera per month (reseller estimate) | Verkada cameras required, $699 to $5,299 MSRP each | A new build where cameras are being bought anyway |
| Remote video guarding | Roughly $50 to $200 per camera per month | Varies by provider | Stores that want a human watching live overnight |
| Recorder with no analytics | Already paid for | Your NVR | Passing inspection only; nobody watches until something goes wrong |
Choose Surveillant if
Your cameras are certified and working, your pain is finding footage and noticing trouble after hours, and you want a price you can read before any sales call.
Choose something else if
Shrink investigations always start from a POS report, in which case a POS-linked platform fits better, or your camera layout does not yet meet the state rule, in which case the integrator comes first.
For the wider retail picture, see how Surveillant compares with Solink and our breakdown of what AI video analytics costs per camera.
Questions Dispensary Owners Ask Before Buying
Can AI cameras help a dispensary pass a state inspection?
Indirectly, yes. Inspectors check coverage, retention and whether you can produce footage on request. Analytics cannot fix a missing camera, but offline-camera alerts stop an unnoticed outage from becoming a hole in the record, and plain-English search lets staff produce the exact clip a regulator asks for in minutes instead of scrubbing hours of video.
Does Surveillant integrate with a cannabis POS or Metrc?
No. Surveillant watches the video from the register area but does not read transaction data from a point-of-sale system or from Metrc. If you need every sale matched to its video clip, a POS-linked platform such as Solink does that specific job better. Surveillant is the better fit for search, after-hours alerts and camera uptime.
Will it work with the cameras my dispensary already has?
Yes, if they expose an RTSP or ONVIF stream, which almost every commercial IP camera and NVR sold in the last decade does, including Hikvision, Dahua, Uniview and Axis recorders. Nothing is installed in the store and no camera is replaced. The cameras your integrator certified for the license stay exactly where they are.
Is cloud video analytics allowed for a licensed dispensary?
In most states the rules govern the recording itself, not the analytics you run on it, so adding a cloud analytics layer on top of a compliant recorder rarely raises an issue. Some states require on-site storage or an on-site display, which your recorder already covers. If your regulator restricts sending video off premises, confirm with them before connecting streams.
How long does setup take?
For a single store, typically one afternoon. You create the account, paste each camera's RTSP address or your NVR's stream addresses, write one-sentence rules for the rooms you care about, and choose who receives which alert. There is no hardware to ship and no change to the certified camera layout, so no integrator visit is needed.
Does it work for cultivation and processing sites too?
Yes. Grow rooms, drying rooms, processing areas and the waste disposal area are all limited-access spaces, and the same after-hours presence alerts and search work there. Multi-license operators can run dispensaries, grows and processing facilities in one account and apply the same rules across every site.
Related Pages for Cannabis and Retail Operators
Make the Footage You Already Keep Work for You
Connect your dispensary cameras, write the rules for the vault and the back door, and see the first alerts the same day. $49 to $75 per camera per month, published.